Note:  Those of you who know me may also know that for a long time my family complained about my Blackberry use, that I had this PDA holstered at all times, that I love social media and that I had been known to compulsively text while driving.  This makes me busy & productive, but also diffused- not Conscious or On Purpose.   About a year ago, it came to me that I wanted  a different quality of work and creation, restful and easy, so I started to unplug- first a little bit each day, then around bedtime, then increasing blocks of time this year: 2 days, then 4, then almost completely for 10 days on a vacation.  The result:  incredibly fecund creativity, deeper connections and relationships, a doubling of my income, and I’m 10 pounds lighter.   I started listening in to the most productive, highest level people I know, and they all, to a one, have the habit of disciplined unplugging.  This piece is the result of that inquiry.

We love the internet but…..

The Pew Center for Internet Research says the web has made information “abundant, cheap, personal & participatory”.  It has given us information we need, when and where we need it.  We now have the ability to keep connected despite being such a mobile world- with tighter ties with far flung friends and family (free Skype calls to Europe, anybody?). Some have even called the web an external hard drive for humanity, a sort of intermediate stage collective consciousness.

However, from an attention standpoint, we’ve all been hit with a one-two punch:  first, there’s been a huge shift in the sheer volume of information consumed (a 2009 UC study claimed an increase of 350% in the amount of information consumed daily between 1980 and 2008), and second, there’s been a shift to pervasive interface (cell phones, smart phones, remote working, social networks, 1 minute news cycle, status updates).   This always-connected living has changed our collective habits (from CrackBerry use in meetings to texting while driving), the depth of our interactions and the structure of our brains.

The shift in the pace and method of information exchange is shifting the quality of our relationships and changing the quality of our outputs.  Moreover, the rapid news and ‘status’ cycles causes us to pay attention to stuff that often doesn’t relate to our goals.

To create defensible mental space, and do your best work, you have to block out the external noise and the distractions for a long enough period of time to get centered and to flow. (more…)