Stop Being "Distracted"

Maggie Jackson's book Distracted: The Erosion of Attention and the Coming Dark Age," is getting real buzz.
I got this subject line in my email yesterday: Are You Feeling Distracted? (My first thought: just about every minute of the day.)

Are you feeling saturated with all the tools that are supposed to make life better (email, cell phone, IM, etc.)? Do you feel as if your work performance is lagging as a result? If so, then I recommend you take a look at this thought-provoking book by Maggie Jackson, "Distracted: The Erosion of Attention and the Coming Dark Age." In "Distracted" we learn how new forms of electronic communication are impacting our basic lives.

Personally, I already turn off IM most of the time, and I shut off email when I'm on the phone or trying to get actual work done. I try not to answer my phone during those periods, either.

Author Cali Yost calls it a "Silent Spring" type of book in this review on Fast Company Launching the 'Attention' Movement ("Silent Spring" galvanized the environmental movement in this country in the 1960s).

Jackson is not the first by any means to raise the question of whether we're simply over-connected. I first heard it talked about several years ago by Linda Stone, who talked about "continuous partial attention" (a nice euphemism for the more direct "Distracted").

Jackson seems to have hit on something important at a time when pretty much everyone is starting to feel its effects. I haven't read the book, but encourage those who have to weigh in on its value for business leaders. Who, after all, wants to work with people who can't pay attention?