Connection vs. productivity
Online tools that let users know when there is activity on social networks or e-mail can hamper productivity, Darrell Etherington write, citing a study from the University of Cardiff. But their suggested cure — auditory alerts — sounds worse than the original disease to me. A sound would be far more disruptive.
Instead, I make it a point to disable programs with alert, and set aside specific time to check on Twitter and other social media networks. Changing my e-mail settings to only update every 30 minutes gave me a tremendous boost in productivity.
How about you? How do you balance the need to stay connected with the imperative to stay on task?
Posted by Carolyn Reeves on December 10th, 2009 at 11:43 am
I disable all notifications while I am at work. I found that notifications were distracting and hurt my productivity.
Posted by jg on December 12th, 2009 at 3:01 am
alerts are no different to phone calls and text messages or someone knocking on your door. like anything each one of us has a different tolerance level wrt maintaining productivity midst of all these alerts. personally i decide when i do not want to be distracted and turn my alerts off accordingly.