My computer is an enabler

I have to admit it - I am a junkie for information, and my computer is an enabler.  I am going to coin a new phrase - distraction sickness, for which the only known cure is a return to pencil and paper.

I wonder how many different channels of information a person's mind can handle at once and how many different tasks can be handled roughly simultaneously, because I've discovered (much to my chagrin) that my computer can handle it, but it's becoming increasingly apparent that I can't. 

I discovered this just the other day when I was working on two spreadsheets, three word documents, and had several emails developed and ready to go.  Oh, and of course I had a couple of PowerPoint documents open and SalesForce.com and several other websites open.  Thanks, Firefox, for your lovely tabbed browsing.  As I was busily multi-tasking, a colleague walked into my office and asked me for a document that I was sure was on my computer desktop.  So I went through the minimizing drill, minimizing active word documents, powerpoints, excel spreadsheets, emails and so forth.  It was almost comical how much stuff I had to move to get to what I needed to give my colleague.

That got me thinking about what an enabler my computer is.  Given the advances in memory and processor speed, I can have many, many different documents and programs running at the same time.  I usually do.  This creates a lot of information availability, but I am beginning to wonder if it makes me more "efficient" or effective, or if this is becoming a distraction.  Just because I CAN work on a lot of stuff at once, that doesn't mean I SHOULD work on all these things all at once. 

The worst enabler?  That's easy.  Firefox.  Once I left IE behind and moved onto the sweet tabbed interface of Firefox, life seemed better.  It became so easy to switch from one website to another, that eventually I'd have seven or eight open browser windows, plus all the other email, word, etc stuff that's out there.  And this became a distraction, and I don't even use any of the cool plug-ins that are available for Firefox.  I'm afraid to.  I might never find my desktop again.

I feel like there should be Multi-taskers anonymous.  A twelve step program to break you from your need for hundreds of open documents and programs.  Then, maybe, I can concentrate again.  Just don't ask me to give up my Firefox browser.  That browser is either the greatest productivity enhancer of the last ten years in computing, or the biggest distraction from getting things done I've found yet.

Comments

[Katy]

If you're on a windows PC you could always press the [Windows key]+[D] to quickly show your desktop rather than have to minimise everything, alternatively [Windows Key]+[M]minimises all open applications. See http://www.katywhitton.com/flipping/index.asp?view=display&ID=432 for a few more handy Shortcuts.

[David Mandery]

Interesting way of looking at multi-tasking. Tabbed browsing definitely changes peoples lives. I use Maxthon for my primary broswer and lots of times I have 20 to 60 tabs open. And then I end up opening another browser window to open more tabs until I get around to processing the tabs I have open. Of course in addition to all the other stuff I have open. And sometimes it is days before I end up going through all the tabs. I think my record is around 110 tabs open in one window.