Are you appropriately engaged, and how many screens are you watching?
Don’t panic, this post is not a check-up to see if you’ve picked the right partner to marry! Being appropriately engaged is a term used by David Allen, the author of Getting Things Done (GTD for short), the art of stress-free productivity. If you don’t know already, I’m a big fan, and love to work at and teach his principles. To me he’s basically saying, are you doing the right thing in the right moment, with no distraction? Are you multitasking and not rightly engaged in the thing you are doing right now?
Better Focus
A simple example from our house is when me and Mrs S sit down to watch a TV show. One of us will then get a message on our phone, pick it up, and then engage in a text conversation. One of us then pipes up, “Are you watching this or not?” “Yes, Yes, of course I am”, thinking that you are seamlessly doing both. But in reality we are neither engaged in one or the other. Eyes glancing up occasionally at the TV, and a half thought out message typed out on the phone.
A one-screen policy
One attendee at a recent workshop told me that they have a “one-screen” policy in their living room. You are not allowed to be involved in more than one screen at a time, i.e. If the TV is on and you want to use your phone or ipad or laptop, you have to go into a different room. She said that this works really well for her, her husband and two kids. It stops the impulsiveness, and life feels better with the shared viewing experience of the TV programme.
Are you a double-screener?
Another example that I see in offices, is the double-screeners. People who have dual monitors, one for applications, and one just for email, watching "Live" the constant river coming in. For some people this is of course a necessity, for example in some customer service situations. But for most of us are we just seeing every email as urgent, and are willing to let it distract us from the bigger work we are doing on the other screen.
It would be interesting to get your thoughts on this, and how do you stay appropriately engaged? Let me know in the comments.