Work and life geek with attention problems
Everyone is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb trees,
she will live all her life with faith in her stupidity.
Albert Einstein
Laziness is the habit of resting before you get tired.
')
Jules Renard
Problems concentrating? Is the external impact confusing? It seems that everything is falling apart? Can't remember things? There is an exit. For everything to be normal, you just need a little help. You have to accept yourself and learn to live with it.
You can drastically reduce the number of problems by adhering to the following recommendations:
Examples of semantic blocks and their possible enlargement:
In order not to overload the combined ligaments with unnecessary objects, they can be broken down by place of use or action. For example: car, walking tour, business trip, etc. Thus it is logical to have two bundles, each of which contains a partially overlapping set of objects, but intended for a specific purpose.
The main thing is that the total number of simultaneously used blocks be from three to five pieces. It is difficult to fit more in the head, and in fact it is necessary to leave a place to the outside world.
This rule works fine, because exploits the features of the functioning of short-term human memory.
Let us consider in more detail several life situations on the example of how I solve them.
In books to combat stress and insomnia, it is strongly advised not to use the bed as a place to eat and work. This is necessary so that the body can relax in a familiar, proven nest.
By the way! If an inappropriate thought has occurred to me (for example, a working question at home and vice versa), it is a good idea to take note of this matter in Evernote, which you open both there and there. Practice has shown that, for example, the thought comes to me in the same place, therefore incidents are possible - at work you are thinking to do something at home, at home you plan what to do at work, and as a result you do something completely different there and there remembering plans only at the end of the day. To-do lists tear this vicious circle with ease.
How do I do it:
Need to call a person on Friday at 11.15 am in 2 years? No problems! As Peter Didenko said, those who understand the calendars chip always mock those who are not yet.
Evernote is a brilliant invention and an indispensable assistant in all types of structuring and preserving information. Well, about him separately, many, many things written.
A wiki is useful for describing workflows. First, it allows, in the event of something, to distract from the work and return to it after a while again. Although distracted there is a fierce evil, but unfortunately it happens all the time at IT work. Secondly, if several people work on the task, the Wiki automatically becomes a tool for teamwork: you can see who does what, who has difficulties, you can discuss the tasks on the discussion pages, attach files and everything. At the same time, as a bonus, documentation is collected by itself.
A mobile phone for a person of the 21st century is actually the same thing as a church council for a medieval city dweller. It is a window to the world, central to the value system and just a mass of possibilities. With proper configuration, the phone is able to easily facilitate the life of its owner.
Technical "chips" is logical to use at 100%. In all contacts it is necessary to fill in the names, positions and photos as soon as possible. Otherwise, why buy something? It is necessary to refrain from nicknames, avatars and contacts of difficult fate like "123 call back". At night, it will be nice if the phone itself mutes the sound and only passes important calls. It is convenient to prepare a set of SMS templates for typical situations in advance so as not to waste time on repeated messages.
If there are especially talented and annoying personalities among colleagues, instead of a ringing tone, you can set the sound of silence - the rest will not hurt, and attention to these friends will switch when there is a real opportunity, and not a hundred times a day. You must automatically synchronize your calendar with your PC or Cloud. Owning modern smartphones this advice will seem trivial, but in 2007 it was not so easy to organize for regular phones.
First of all, you should try to abandon ICQ, Jabber, and Skype, the emerging Growl notifiers. It is a rule to check email according to a convenient schedule, and not by notification of the notifier. Notifications do not particularly accelerate the speed of resolving the issue, most often - they are confusing when they come at the wrong time. If you need to communicate in real time, you can always agree on the mail and allocate a specific time in the calendar.
Then you need to turn off the second phone and (or) the second line. There is little rent, and the problems are a wagon and a small truck. What is the use of deciding an important question to find out that they are still calling? Nerves and extra money will be spent, the conversation will be delayed, the subscriber from the other side will be nervous too. Ignoring the signal from the second line looks bad from the side of the caller. An unanswered call is psychologically harder than a dial-up failure. The second line - out of sight, out of mind!
The disadvantages of the approach can be boldly attributed to the completely elementary planning culture that some people lack. Mobile technologies do not correct, but on the contrary aggravate this phenomenon. Everything becomes tightly tied to the instant accessibility of the remote subscriber. If it is EXTREMELY impossible to reach him or hear the answer online, a lot of people simply fall into a stupor.
I, for example, always, if I can not get through to a person on an urgent matter, immediately duplicate the question by SMS and, if possible, by e-mail. Excellent result is achieved in 99.9% of cases. Or call back or resolve the issue and call back.
TV, RSS feeds - boldly in the trash! It is necessary to leave only the necessary. It should read all sorts of sites only when there is time. Is it inconvenient to browse 100500 sites without a reader? Friendly, aren't you spending a lot of time reading slag?
For those who can not imagine life without aggregators, in the book of T. Limoncelli there is an excellent advice: every month it is necessary to unsubscribe from one rss-mailing, usenet-group or email-mailing. Choose from the general list the most unnecessary and get rid of. This will keep only the actual things.
she will live all her life with faith in her stupidity.
Albert Einstein
Laziness is the habit of resting before you get tired.
')
Jules Renard
Problems concentrating? Is the external impact confusing? It seems that everything is falling apart? Can't remember things? There is an exit. For everything to be normal, you just need a little help. You have to accept yourself and learn to live with it.
You can drastically reduce the number of problems by adhering to the following recommendations:
- In your head, keep no more than three or five things at a time, combining actions into large semantic blocks.
- Once and for all, choose a solution for a daily set of trifles: bring cases to the calendar, check the iron, etc.
- Arrange all things in their places and maintain the established order.
- Duplicate necessary and frequently used items; spread them out at all angles.
- Skillfully use the calendar, mobile phone and other tools of the Internet century.
- And most importantly: DO NOT RETRAIN IN SLITCHES!
1) Combining actions
It is necessary to strive to operate with only three to five objects at a time. For this, it is necessary to combine small objects and actions into semantic blocks, and they, in turn, into larger ones, etc. The fact is that human memory is finite. For most people, the amount of RAM is 3-5, less often 7 semantic units. If you exceed this "magic" number, it becomes bad. You can even go on a little trick and try to squeeze the number of objects to two or three, leaving as much space as possible external stimuli. In this case, the risk of distraction to such an extent that to forget something important is minimal.Examples of semantic blocks and their possible enlargement:
- Backpack + folder, keys + wallet, documents, umbrellas + jackets + raincoats.
- Paper / Ticket / Document / Notepad -> Folder -> Backpack
- Card / SNILS / VU / PASSPORT -> Lopatnik -> Backpack
- Car, Garage, Gate, House, USB Flash Drive -> Keychain in your pocket
In order not to overload the combined ligaments with unnecessary objects, they can be broken down by place of use or action. For example: car, walking tour, business trip, etc. Thus it is logical to have two bundles, each of which contains a partially overlapping set of objects, but intended for a specific purpose.
The main thing is that the total number of simultaneously used blocks be from three to five pieces. It is difficult to fit more in the head, and in fact it is necessary to leave a place to the outside world.
This rule works fine, because exploits the features of the functioning of short-term human memory.
2) Single choice for frequently repeated, minor and minor actions.
Let us take advice from the book of T. Limoncelli: for all minor actions for which mental efforts are spent every day, we must make a decision once and for all. If you decide for yourself how to act in selected situations, firstly, time will be freed up to think about something more important, and secondly, the number of errors will be reduced. It is not difficult to always put things on the calendar, check the iron before leaving the house, etc. Spending energy on daily meditations on an umbrella or a diary is not worth it.Let us consider in more detail several life situations on the example of how I solve them.
- In order not to suffer without an umbrella in the pouring rain, I solved the problem by simultaneously placing umbrellas at home, in the car and at work. The only and mandatory task in this case is the indispensable return of the object to its original place after use. Notice, there is no more agony of choice, mistakes too. No more guessing at the weather forecast.
- Take or not to take the iPad? Take! Excess will not be even if it is not useful.
- To bring or not to add to the calendar every little thing, relying on memory? Must be introduced! Do not overestimate yourself, the extra 3 minutes of poking into the smartphone will then be reimbursed a hundredfold. And, again, the head is completely free.
- Put the document / file in Dropbox or leave it locally? Be sure to put! It is very "fun", having dashed off for 900 kilometers, suddenly to find out that a USB flash drive with a thesis lies peacefully at home on a table by the mirror. Dropbox - power.
- Does a timer start if you need to do something soon? Definitely yes! And the milk will not run away, and you will not forget to call the boss back.
- Do not answer the phone while driving. Quite quite. The only exception is so boring and unimaginably long traffic jam, in which you can not only manage to solve all the issues, but also watch a couple of episodes of Dr. House.
3) Everything has its place
Work at the table, eat in the kitchen, sleep in bed. The same applies to the location of things - having defined places for objects, it is necessary to develop the habit of constantly supporting them. Over time, the body gets used to a certain environment and turns on habitual stimuli itself. You should not rely on your memory and then frantically turn everything around when you suddenly need it. Saw something out of place? Immediately got up and put it to be.In books to combat stress and insomnia, it is strongly advised not to use the bed as a place to eat and work. This is necessary so that the body can relax in a familiar, proven nest.
By the way! If an inappropriate thought has occurred to me (for example, a working question at home and vice versa), it is a good idea to take note of this matter in Evernote, which you open both there and there. Practice has shown that, for example, the thought comes to me in the same place, therefore incidents are possible - at work you are thinking to do something at home, at home you plan what to do at work, and as a result you do something completely different there and there remembering plans only at the end of the day. To-do lists tear this vicious circle with ease.
4) Duplication
In order to conveniently operate with blocks, you can duplicate some objects between them. This is necessary to optimize the number of large blocks used to solve everyday tasks. If there is a chance to forget the object, it is best to try to make it always at hand. This is easily achieved by placing the same objects in different corners.How do I do it:
- Three umbrellas: at home, in the car and at work. Being caught off guard in such a situation is quite difficult.
- The keys to the house are in the wallet and in the car bundle: when you go out for a walk you take a wallet, in the car you will find your keys and you will never find yourself in front of a locked door.
- Glasses at home, in the backpack and in the pair in the car (dark / light). It is rather unpleasant for a "bespectacled person" to be behind the wheel or in an unfamiliar environment in a state of "permanent boke."
- Timer in the computer, in a wristwatch and, at the same time, a separate mechanical in the kitchen. As the people do without them, I do not understand!
- Dropbox + Evernote at home, at work, tablet and smartphone - no need to worry about manually synchronizing files and notes between sites and on trips.
5) Technical Assistants
All affairs and reminders for a period of more than an hour, should be reflected in the calendar . Visible free days, you can decide when and what to do. You should never keep in mind a lot of things when there is a great helper for this. And if you add to the calendar not only plans, but after the fact, the work done, then, if necessary, you can easily make the necessary reports on the work done to the nearest hour.Need to call a person on Friday at 11.15 am in 2 years? No problems! As Peter Didenko said, those who understand the calendars chip always mock those who are not yet.
Evernote is a brilliant invention and an indispensable assistant in all types of structuring and preserving information. Well, about him separately, many, many things written.
A wiki is useful for describing workflows. First, it allows, in the event of something, to distract from the work and return to it after a while again. Although distracted there is a fierce evil, but unfortunately it happens all the time at IT work. Secondly, if several people work on the task, the Wiki automatically becomes a tool for teamwork: you can see who does what, who has difficulties, you can discuss the tasks on the discussion pages, attach files and everything. At the same time, as a bonus, documentation is collected by itself.
A mobile phone for a person of the 21st century is actually the same thing as a church council for a medieval city dweller. It is a window to the world, central to the value system and just a mass of possibilities. With proper configuration, the phone is able to easily facilitate the life of its owner.
Technical "chips" is logical to use at 100%. In all contacts it is necessary to fill in the names, positions and photos as soon as possible. Otherwise, why buy something? It is necessary to refrain from nicknames, avatars and contacts of difficult fate like "123 call back". At night, it will be nice if the phone itself mutes the sound and only passes important calls. It is convenient to prepare a set of SMS templates for typical situations in advance so as not to waste time on repeated messages.
If there are especially talented and annoying personalities among colleagues, instead of a ringing tone, you can set the sound of silence - the rest will not hurt, and attention to these friends will switch when there is a real opportunity, and not a hundred times a day. You must automatically synchronize your calendar with your PC or Cloud. Owning modern smartphones this advice will seem trivial, but in 2007 it was not so easy to organize for regular phones.
6) DON'T RETRAIN!
We must learn not to succumb to external influences and work without deviating from the intended goal. It is necessary to get rid of all unnecessary irritants, which invisibly, but rather tightly shrouded our attention.First of all, you should try to abandon ICQ, Jabber, and Skype, the emerging Growl notifiers. It is a rule to check email according to a convenient schedule, and not by notification of the notifier. Notifications do not particularly accelerate the speed of resolving the issue, most often - they are confusing when they come at the wrong time. If you need to communicate in real time, you can always agree on the mail and allocate a specific time in the calendar.
Then you need to turn off the second phone and (or) the second line. There is little rent, and the problems are a wagon and a small truck. What is the use of deciding an important question to find out that they are still calling? Nerves and extra money will be spent, the conversation will be delayed, the subscriber from the other side will be nervous too. Ignoring the signal from the second line looks bad from the side of the caller. An unanswered call is psychologically harder than a dial-up failure. The second line - out of sight, out of mind!
The disadvantages of the approach can be boldly attributed to the completely elementary planning culture that some people lack. Mobile technologies do not correct, but on the contrary aggravate this phenomenon. Everything becomes tightly tied to the instant accessibility of the remote subscriber. If it is EXTREMELY impossible to reach him or hear the answer online, a lot of people simply fall into a stupor.
I, for example, always, if I can not get through to a person on an urgent matter, immediately duplicate the question by SMS and, if possible, by e-mail. Excellent result is achieved in 99.9% of cases. Or call back or resolve the issue and call back.
TV, RSS feeds - boldly in the trash! It is necessary to leave only the necessary. It should read all sorts of sites only when there is time. Is it inconvenient to browse 100500 sites without a reader? Friendly, aren't you spending a lot of time reading slag?
For those who can not imagine life without aggregators, in the book of T. Limoncelli there is an excellent advice: every month it is necessary to unsubscribe from one rss-mailing, usenet-group or email-mailing. Choose from the general list the most unnecessary and get rid of. This will keep only the actual things.
Conclusion
Summarize what was written above. If you keep in mind no more than three or five things at a time, then the risk of distracting and forgetting something is small. You should not shirk small things and think about whether to contribute to the calendar, whether to use a dropbox, etc. It is necessary to make a decision once and for all and not hesitate to follow it as a ritual. It would be nice to put all the things in their places and maintain the established order. It will be especially good if frequently used and necessary objects are multiplied and laid out in all possible places both at home and at work. Enjoy the calendar! It would be nice to keep a mobile phone in order: do not hold junk contacts, fill in photos, posts and addresses, synchronize with the cloud. Do not be distracted by trifles - do not become a slave to the notifiers and informers.Recommended literature
- Thomas Limoncelli. Time management for system administrators. ( paper , ePub )
- Formula for success: spontaneous planning and life in the stream / ivanpirog.com
- How not to lose things / habrahabr.ru ( mirror )
- How do I find time? / habrahabr.ru
- Jobs: Petr Didenko in charge / lifehacker.ru
- OPERATIONAL MEMORY AND NUMBER SEVEN. / Archive of the journal "SCIENCE AND LIFE" / №8, 2010 / www.nkj.ru
- Short-term memory / ru.wikipedia.org
- Bog BOS: System Administrator Time Management / www.bog.pp.ru
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/164601/
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