Unplugging

I recently got back from a trip to Ireland, and I had the most amazing experience. I unplugged. I didn’t unplug in the extreme sense, but, while there, I didn’t have a cell phone, e-mail, computer, or iPod. The rooms we stayed in at two B&Bs didn’t have televisions and I read only one newspaper the entire trip (which focused mostly on Irish topics). In fact, the only television I watched while on my trip was the U.S./England World Cup football, ne soccer, match at the pub. Having left all my electronic leashes behind, I spent some time reading a book (you know, those things made out of paper) instead of blogs and the internet, and found myself thinking more clearly.

Which is not to say that I don’t think clearly. However, given the dominating role the internet plays in our lives, I believe that more people than not find that their thinking or thought process can be improved. In his new book The Shallows, Nicholas Carr attributes the decline in our ability to concentrate to the growth of the internet as a primary source of information and reading . This lack of concentration is also seen in technology’s ability to help us multitask, and have us focus poorly on multiple tasks at one time rather than focusing well on one task at a time. A recent New York Times article focused on the role of technology in our life and its impact on our ability to think. As cited in the article, recent research has found that multitaskers suffer from fractured thinking and a lack of focus even when not multitasking. Carr has taken this idea one step further, likening our use of the internet to multitasking by reading a book while trying to do a crossword puzzle.

What does this all mean? With the ubiquity of technology and gadgets, our concentration is being pulled and taxed, hurting the quality of our thought and work. As a result, our ability to think strategically has suffered. Anecdotally, I know of many public sector leaders that have sacrificed their preference to address challenges strategically and comprehensively and now spend most of their time addressing issues tactically. To combat this, we need to force ourselves to unplug. Turn off the computer. Put down the blackberry. This can be hard when we’re in our comfort zone and routine, at home or at the office. To do the job well, we need to discipline ourselves not to always be working in our e-mail, and focus on the long-term projects on our plate.