Are you New Here ? You might want to:

                    1. Take a look at some of the most popular posts 
                2. Subscribe to the RSS Feed
                3. about StartupDunia
                4. Leave me a tip by email

Combating distraction, procrastination and information overload

June 2, 2008 · Posted in Misc 

Three things I’ve been struggling to cope up with lately.  Yes, I’ve read and tried the GTD way of life, but for whatever reason, it just didnt work.

Has any particular technique worked for you ?  If so, can you share some tips ?

The way things are currently, I’d be ready to pay, to restore some order in these three aspects of my life.


1 Star2 Stars3 Stars4 Stars5 Stars (No Ratings Yet)
Loading ... Loading ...

Similar Posts

Comments

7 Responses to “Combating distraction, procrastination and information overload”

  1. Vikas on June 3rd, 2008 12:18 am

    Distraction - I use the urgent / important methodology. Based on your day, decide what set of things you want to attend to - i.e. urgent only, important only, urgent and important or all. If you miss something that day, too bad.

    For Procrastination; Delegate. Move the money on someone else’s back.
    I tried various tools as well, but the reality is that once you save it for later, chances are you will never get to it. That’s why I hate delicious, gmail and all such tools that make it so easy for me to save tasks for later and fool me into believing that I will some day some how magically get to them.

    Information overload - still trying to figure something out. I think part of it is to just accept the fact that it is ok to live with less than perfect information in the world.

  2. Nag on June 3rd, 2008 12:44 am

    http://paulgraham.com/distraction.html
    HTH

  3. Unmesh on June 3rd, 2008 12:51 am

    cant we all use some help here :)
    I recently picked up Robin Sharma’s book “The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari”. Some inspiring thoughts in there.

  4. Mahesh on June 3rd, 2008 4:42 am

    Use different computers for Work and non-Work. (The summary of the Essay on distraction, Nag linked to)

    Also…Nothing speaks louder and clearer than actual Numbers. Try installing RescueTime to track how you spend you time.

    -Mahesh
    Celebrating Life…

  5. Ketan on June 3rd, 2008 4:46 am

    For distraction and information overload.

    1) Make absolute rules; how much to time access internet and what is must read information.

    Using tools like rescutime client or 8aweek firefox plugin can shorten your surfing time by atleast 10-15%. Dont log onto IM clients whole day. Mail is still best asynch mode of communication.

    Set up proper filters for your email clients. Outlook. As soon as email comes; align it with task in outlook and assign them priority and estimated time to complete along with reminders.

    If not using outlook; there is very good GTD tool called as nextaction written by steve yegge. Search on google “trimpath nextaction”.

    If you are using google calendar; then set up mobile/email alerts for your google calendar account. This helps a lot.

    Most important thing would be to before you leave office ; plan atleast what needs to be done the very next day. This keeps you in synch with next day. Follow this for 2-3 weeks; it gets assimilated.

    Let me know if it helps

  6. pranav on June 3rd, 2008 11:20 am

    First of all - thanks all of you guys for taking the time & pitching in your words of advice.

    @vikas - you hit the nail on the head - I have often wondered why I’m bookmarking all these interesting stories in delicious or why I’m starring feed items in GReader - Very seldom I come back and take a peek.

    @Nag - I was aware of PG’s essay when I wrote this post. He has a post on procrastination also. however, his essay doesnt really provide me a good solution.

    @unmesh - if you’ve gleaned any interesting tips, do send them over.

    @mahesh - As I responded to Nag - PG’s essay doesnt really provide me a solution. Having separate computers for work and non-work is less than ideal scenario for various reasons. I’ve looked into installing RescueTime, but since I use my work laptop during major part of the day, I cant install RT on it to meet security compliance requirements.

    @ketan
    I look into the nexaction tool that you mention above. Regarding the email policy, I try to maintain a different policy. Instead of filtering email, all email is received in inbox. I have created 3 different folders to process each email - needs action, processed and peek later.

    After reviewing each email, I take one of the three actions above. if i can respond to the email at that very time, i respond and send it to the processed folder. if response will take a longer time and some more thought, move it into the need action folder. else, if the email is just info only, move it to the peek later folder. anything else, read and delete.

  7. Sudhanshu on June 3rd, 2008 1:09 pm

    Give in!!! That always works…