Distractionless.

So as I was sitting at my desk this morning, getting ready to jump feet first into this experience we lovingly call Monday, I was about to fire up Microsoft Lync on my work Mac. Now, there is nothing unusual about this, being a WFH guy (work from home guy) or telecommuter, it is important to use as many tools possible to remain connected with your co-workers. When you can’t collaborate in person you must do so electronically. It’s all logical.

The downside to Lync and Facebook and Google+ and Twitter and text messaging and Instagram and all that stuff is that it is really a boatload of distraction. Whether these tools are used for work or play, when not managed properly they can take you out of the moment. Your “here and now” is actually elsewhere. At work, a Lync popup can pull me out of my coding zen space because when I hear that “message!” sound I feel compelled to see what’s up. When I try to get back to my coding I think I had started where I left off, when in reality, all lines of code start to look alike and I didn’t really leave off at the particular point. I then think that I’m being productive when in reality I’m just breaking something because I have left some unfinished code lingering where I really left off.

I hate it when I do that.

When a message pops up on our phones or whatever, it takes us away from the moment. I noticed that I checked my phone on a couple of occasions between courses at dinner the other night. That was rude of me and I am publicly apologizing to my husband right here and now for that. I don’t know that he noticed because he was checking his phone at the time. By the way, we’re not awful, we don’t check our phones during a meal or in lieu of a conversation, only in lulls of activity, but still, I guess I was being a little rude and I don’t like that. My I should strive to be less lulling. I think it’s important to set a good example. Maybe one in a million will notice and do the same.

Another thing that has kind of been getting on my nerves lately is the number of people taking selfies in front of important things, like visiting the Queen of England or sitting between Abraham Lincoln’s legs.

Well I do take my share of selfies and I share them via Instagram and all things connected to that, it’s not something that I want to do. The analytical side of me wants to know why I’m doing this. What need does posting yet another photo of myself fulfill? I have no idea.

So in an effort to be a little less distracted I made a couple of adjustments to my iPhone this morning. First of all, I deleted Google+ and Facebook right off of my phone. If anyone needs me immediately they can send me a text message; they know how to get a hold of me. Now, I’m not committing to this forever, I am going to try to go FB and G+ free for a week. I still have Instagram and I still have Twitter because well, truth be known, Twitter is my favorite of the the social networks and I do like looking at all kinds of photos on Instagram. As a quick aside, if Facebook gets ad crazy with Instagram, I will dump it like a hot potato in an instant and go back to Flickr.

I can’t do much about Lync at work, I just need to train myself better in not being distracted when that awful “new message!” Lync sound rings out from my MacBook. But I can be vigilant about making sure my status is up to date and sharing with the world when I’m in that zen worker bee space.

I think the most important thing that I’d like to figure out this FB and G+ free week is how to be in the moment with the people I’m in the moment with. I think I might have lost touch with that a little bit. If it’s worth sharing, I’ll share it when it’s appropriate and most likely via my blog.

Let’s see how this goes.