“Studies show that about 49 percent of our waking time, our minds have wandered away from the task at hand,” Bahl says. “Especially with digital communication, there’s a lot of texting, there’s a lot of multitasking going on, and people are losing the ability to focus when they really want to focus.”
This isn’t just harmless woolgathering. According to data from Basex, a Yorktown Heights, New York-based business research firm, the estimated annual cost to the U.S. economy in loss of productivity from multitasking is $997 billion and a minimum of 28 billion hours.
Technology
NatWest Open Sunday – IT Fail Causes Chaos
NatWest is battling to get on top of a huge backlog of failed payments after a software upgrade on Tuesday night went wrong, resulting in the bank being unable to process payments for its personal and business customers.
via NatWest opens on Sunday as IT glitch causes chaos | Reuters.
In a prior life, I ran information technology operations for two different insurance companies. I changed my professional focus because the stress and pressure of maintaining 100% up-time in a 24/7 environment as my budgets were continuously cut was stupid. Software upgrades should not, I repeat, NOT take down your entire business operations. But in this case it did.
On Monday go give your IT person a BIG HUG. She/he deserves it.
Tracking the Trackers – Video on TED.com
As you surf the Web, information is being collected about you. Web tracking is not 100% evil — personal data can make your browsing more efficient; cookies can help your favorite websites stay in business. But, says Gary Kovacs, it’s your right to know what data is being collected about you and how it affects your online life.
via Gary Kovacs: Tracking the trackers | Video on TED.com.
George Orwell was right.
LinkedIn Confirms Password Leak
LinkedIn confirms password leak, encourages users to update passwords – Tech Talk – CBS News.
Don’t say you weren’t warned.
What Captures Your Attention Controls Your Life – HBR
A few years ago, DisneyWorld executives were wondering what most captured the attention of toddlers and infants at their theme park and hotels in Orlando, Florida. So they hired me and a cultural anthropologist to observe them as they passed by all the costumed cast members, animated creatures, twirling rides, sweet-smelling snacks, and colorful toys. But after a couple of hours of close observation, we realized that what most captured the young children’s attention wasn’t Disney-conjured magic. Instead it was their parents’ cell phones, especially when the parents were using them.
via What Captures Your Attention Controls Your Life – Kare Anderson – Harvard Business Review.
How many people are not really where they are but someplace else?
Is Your Staff Sleeping with Their Smartphones?
This Graph Is Disastrous for Print and Great for Facebook—or the Opposite!
Teleworking Triples Over the Last Decade
In its report, “The Incredible Disappearing Office: Making Telework Work,” The Conference Board finds that the advancements in home networking over the last decade have been accompanied by teleworking gains among a number of these technology-reliant professions, including insurance underwriters 4.5 percent, up 275 percent since 2001-2003 and computer software developers 6.1 percent, up 127 percent.
via Teleworking Triples Over the Last Decade – Insurance Networking News.
You Are Not A Computer – HBR
The Internet, and all it has come to include, is the most powerful interruption technology ever invented. It slices and dices our focus, fractures and distracts it, gives us less and less of more and more. It prompts us to skim, scan, and skip rather than immerse ourselves in any one thing.
Technology has no business setting our agenda, but it has turned into our dominatrix. Masochistically — but all too willingly — we submit to it. Emailing, texting and tweeting, searching Google, checking Facebook, and surfing websites not only consumes our time and energy, it also diminishes our capacity to pay attention to anything for very long — or to resist the next digital temptation.
via You Are Not A Computer (Try As You May) – Tony Schwartz – Harvard Business Review.
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