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Pardon the InterruptionAugust 15th, 2005 by Hans Bjordahl :: see related comic |
A couple years ago, I was helping brainstorm the design for a new e-mail feature. The idea was that whenever you’d receive a new e-mail, a little window would pop up on your computer screen alerting you to this fact, no matter what program you happened to be working in at the time. Now, no matter what you were doing, you could stop to check on the mail.
My main interest in such a feature was that there be an easy way to turn it off.
We live in an era of “all notification, all the time.” You’ve got mail. You’ve got an instant message. Your friend is now online. You have a meeting in 15 minutes. You have 3 voice mail messages. Britney Spears’s new album is now available (what OK button from hell did I click during some random install to agree to get notified of that??) If you’re not at your desk, we’ll route all this to your cell phone. If you’re not at your cell phone, well… somewhere a room full of engineers is working on that.
This is all widely viewed as a “good” thing but sometimes I wonder. I wonder about the fact that most people require some focus time and introspection to really ramp up to a “flow” state where they’re actually solving a core problem or realizing a creative idea of value. If all your devices are chirping at you like a room full of angry parakeets, how do you find the focus to get any actual work done?
I think this is the reason why some of the most conspicuously “busy” people among us are the ones who, at the end of the day, get the least amount done. In today’s workplace, it’s entirely possible be feverishly busy batting minutiae back and forth (extra points for immediate response), and at the end of the day fail to accomplish anything.
The thing about the e-mail notification feature mentioned above? It’s a shipping feature now. And word from the street is that people love it.
I *love* notifications. I love that Outlook gives me a little preview of my new messages, and that my RSS reader lets me know there are new posts on my favorite sites, and that my IM client pops up new messages, etc, etc.
What I don’t like is that turning all of these off so I can focus is such a chore that I rarely do it. What’s I’d love to have would be a universal do-not-disturb button, which would send my phone to voicemail, shut down my notifaction applications, and leave me in peace.
I love the email notifications in Outlook, I remember when I first saw them in Beta. It’s just one of those features that I use everyday and couldnt imagine working without it. The notifications on MSN Messenger can get annoying, espiecally when you keep getting IM’d by the guy you wish would honor your ‘Away’ or ‘Busy’ message.
And that’s a good idea Robby, a universal do not disturb would be a great feature to add into Vista.
I have lived much of my adult life wired into the the Internet. Much as I thought this sort of thing was really spiffy a few years ago, I am of the belief now that maybe being notified of every single communication is not so swell. Even with the ability to chat/e-mail/message people immidiately about any little thign I have taken the tak of unless it is important I will backburner it till I ahev time and inclination to deal with it. I certainly do not need my computer telling me I have e-mail, especially if I am doing something else that requires my concentration (be it the game guild wares, programming, etc).
Gretchen Ledgard
Like the cartoon? Visit Hans Bjordahl’s Bug Bash to see more!
Once upon a time, I wrote…
Gretchen Ledgard
Like the cartoon? Visit Hans Bjordahl’s Bug Bash to see more!
Once upon a time, I wrote…
I’ve grown to hate notifications. The only one I even use anymore are for my Outlook appointments and that’s because I would honestly forget without them. Instead I try to keep a schedule of when I check email and break from actual work. Now is one of those times between “flow” sessions where I take a breather and catch up on what was going on while I was being productive. The only kink in my whole scheme is my desk phone, if I don’t answer certain people’s emails within the magic timeframe I’ll get a call to let me know, and that is some annoying stuff right there…
‘Flow’ is key. I only hop on IM when I have to–if folks really need to contact me, they have my phone number!
This is a great essay on ‘flow’: http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/fog0000000068.html
If you’ve never read it, ‘Peopleware’ is an old but still relevant exploration of software management, including some information on ‘flow’.
Jim Stroud
JobsBlog’s cartoon images and title bar are provided by Hans Bjordahl. See more…
Jenna Adorno
JobsBlog’s cartoon images and title bar are provided by Hans Bjordahl. See more…
Julie Stringham
JobsBlog’s cartoon images and title bar are provided by Hans Bjordahl. See more…
Suggestion Kitty
Like the cartoon? Visit Hans Bjordahl’s Bug Bash to see more!
Suggestion Kitty, who is better…
Bug Bash is a comic strip written and illustrated by Hans Bjordahl. Bug Bash is a comic strip about technology: managing technology, the business of technology. It's about project management and managing projects through the dull world of Rational Rose, use cases, and requirements. Functional requirements, user requirement, functional specifications, design specifications, call it what you want but it's still the bane of project managers. And when you're done with that, you can think about all the fun that comes with timelines, scheduling, estimates (PERT estimation anyone?) and resourcing until Gantt charts are coming out of your ears. Let's not forget the risk management in the software engineering life cycle. Maintaining the project is just as much fun, managing what was initially set out in requirements and trying to keep feature creep / scope creep in check with change management. If any of these words send nightmares to you, the project manager, then this site probably rings true with you. (Who Links Here?)