Puiblishing date: 2025-06-16 17:30:00 +0200
I just read Ploum's essay 'A Society That Lost Focus' [1] in
my lunch break right on the first day when I got back to
work from vacation. I was finding that essay on Mastodon
while searching for the `#tilde` tag; and even though I was
discovering the toot in a the most non-invasive way possible
there a way to many other distraction.
There's MS Teams, my personal nemesis, with two incarnations
on two different tenants, begging for attention, but only
one may be active; so the loser sends emails about missed
notifications. There are emails. And other emails. And push
notifications on your desktop, on your phone.
I should be working on that architecture from that long
workshop from before my vacation, but I need to catch up
with all these backlogs.l
There's a call. Coleague asks me about something. No, I did
not read that email just yet.
An instant message. If that bug is resolved? What bug? The
one assigned to you for triage.
Note, these are just examples from an average day at work,
where you're not exposed to regular social networks,
websites and whatnot.l
It's the corporate treadmill, and as long as we do not
change the work culture, there's not much you can do. Right?
RIGHT?
Well. One *could* work out some passive-aggressive
strategies to mitigate all the troubles and claim back your
time, so that you finally get work done again. Simply turn
of all the applications, right? Ignore incoming emails? Set
Teams to do-not-disturb?
But can you even work with all these distractions? In my
line of work I write documentation, specifications. I build
upon the work of others. It's absolutely nothing I create
from scratch, it's not even possible. I must be able to look
up standard documents on the Internet, check the Intranet
and emails what prior work has been done in this field.
Research simply is not possible without having access to the
all the online repositories and archives.
...and while I was writing this I caught myself peeking at
an xterm running an IRC client.
And looking at that Mastodon client!
OK, I think I got my bearings now. Only got Ploum's article
open - running w3m, in an xterm - some background music, in
cmus - and this editor where I'm writing it.
So what is it what I could do to claim my concentration back
without falling into the trap of "this magical piece of
nu-tec will solve your problems"? I am thinking real hard
about this for years now, but now that I am back from
vacation and straight back into the meat grinder, the whole
question became ever more pressing. So let me see if I can
commit myself to some tactics I just pulled out of my butt,
without thinking too hard about it.
* Let's see if I can make it through one work week with
checking emails only twice a day. Keep MUA closed
otherwise.
* Try not to actively engage in any chat conversation
unless someone actively pings me, because my support is
really needed. I can't simply close Teams
* Keep all applications closed which are not needed to do
the task your're currently working on.
* Make regular breaks.
* When working, try not to research ad-hoc. Collect
questions and split up working between active writing and
research. Imagine the research stage like a walk to the
stacks or the library.
Will that work? Beats me. But I will do my very bloody best
to keep applications or people stealing my attention. I now
have the chance to work on it. I am already working with an
stripped down environment, but it turns out that this didn't
help me from falling into the same trap again. Perhaps it's
just about discipline. Let's see.
Footnotes:
(HTM) [1]: A Society That Lost Focus
(HTM) [2]: TUI for Mastodon with vim inspired keys
(DIR) ..
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