Two devices?
Wednesday, March 23, 2011 at 12:27PM I've been at the NSConference for the past few days. The sessions are a mixture of both highly techie software development topics, interspersed with inspirational and hugely motivating sessions on broader subjects, subjects that are applicable to anyone making a product or delivering a service.
It's also a great place to network and socialise.
But back to the sessions....
I knew that a lot of sessions would be too techie and that I'd really get no benefit from them. So I brought some extra "stuff" that I wanted to work on, with the intention of spending some quality time away from the techie sessions.
However, after three days, I found that the extra "stuff" has largely remained untouched.
Why?
Because during that time, I've been catching up with twitter, reading my RSS feeds and generally consuming information. It's just so easy to do!
Obviously, there is value in Twitter and RSS but it's not very productive. I also find a similar problem when working from home. Twitter has become my virtual water cooler but unlike in a normal working environment (where I'd visit the water cooler every couple of hours)' I find myself hanging around all day, when I should really be back at my desk!
What to do?
This morning, I picked up a blog post from Seth Godin.
I think Seth has captured exactly my dilemma, but more importantly, offered up a solution involving a re-assignment of roles for various devices.
I'm here with my MacBook Air and my iPad, both of which have Twitter, RSS, Safari, email, etc. I can pick up either device and use either for work or "enjoyment".
What if I apply the proposed demarcation of roles by using the MacBook Air just for work, and the iPad for other activities - the activities I enjoy, rather than the activities I need to focus on to make myself more productive?
What if I delete Twitter and my RSS reader from my MacBook Air and only use those services when I'm on my iPad?
In fairness, I prefer to use my iPad for Twitter and RSS, and do turn to the MacBook Air for more productive tasks anyway.
Would this demarcation work, or do I just need to exert some self discipline?
Let's try it for a week and see how it works out.
Reader Comments (11)
The sad thing was, I found this blog from Don on Twitter when I should have been working... what to do?
This sounds like a fantastic idea. When I grab my iPad2 (hopefully on Friday) I am going to try this very thing myself. Thanks for passing this on!
Some twitter and some RSS feeds use flash in the URL's pointed to so they may need to be on a 'normal' Mac
I could not agree with you more Don. These were, and have always been, my sentiments since the launch of the iPad almost one year ago. The 'less is more' rule also applies to hardware and productivity in my opinion.
It is why I enjoyed the Windows 7 phone adds. You know the one, where people are walking into things because they have their faces buried in their 'smart' phones? Brilliant.
People will disagree with me of course but I'm sorry, a spade is a spade. And being able to do everything on everything is in no way a good idea. That is why I class the iPad with it's smaller brothers, the other iPods, as entertainment devices. They are fantastic, they have a place, but unfortunately it's not the work place in all honesty.
Good luck with your readjustments. I'll be watching with interest.
I have followed a similar philosophy for maybe a year now (since I got the ipad 1 on launch day here in the US).
Twitter stays on my mobile devices and recently I removed Reeder from my desktop and returned to Reeder on my ipad and iphone.
I found productivity did increase. I take 10 minute breaks and catch up on the latest feeds, etc on a regular basis but that to me, is a needed break.
I'd love to find out how you fare with the change - took me a little while as I was used to checking twitter every two minutes but now I love seeing a bunch tweets I can scroll through. I feel this is what tweets are for...
Good luck!
Paul.
Nice idea, Don. I think I'm going to try this with you. A friend proposed this earlier to me, but never actually gave it a try.
Don, Take a look at Zite for your iPad 2.
So very true Don. My addiction lies not with Twitter and RSS (although I do check both regularly), but with the ever pressing obligation to spend time on Facebook. I have access to it from all of my devices, and find that it is a gigantic time-suck. My solution? Not to delete my account, or to remove it from any of my devices, but to simply avoid it. It's been about a week now, and I feel so much better about myself. It helped tremendously that I was on vacation this past week, and although I had my devices with me, I opted to devote time to family instead of the technology.
Don,
My workhorse is a Macbook Pro. My travel machine for long trips is a Macbook Air. My iPhone covers most of what I need to do if I am just away for a few hours.
As it happens, I wished I had a machine with me just yesterday when someone wanted an image at a different size.
Be that as it may, the thing is, I was thinking of selling the Macbook Air and getting an iPad 2.
So when I read the phrase "and do turn to the MacBook Air for more productive tasks anyway" - what are the things that you do on your Macbook Air that you cannot do on the iPad?
Hi Don
I know exactly what you mean. I am on Holiday from work this week and realised by Monday lunchtime that the integrated world of iPad, Palm Pre + and laptop to my work environment was not a good idea. So synchronisation was all turned off and peace resumed.
I worked from home as a freelancer for 6 months and it was so difficult to switch off when the 'office' was right next to the bathroom! Work life balance is important for our health and very very difficult in your type of job/work.
I reckon your idea is sound, go for it and do tell us if it helps you switch off more.
J
Thank you! I thought I was becoming a Luddite or something simply because I was too busy to constantly check Twitter. I am also of a like mind with Jared. Facebook has also been avoided. I was actually starting to get wedding announcements on Facebook, and that's were I drew the line. If someone wants to let me know something, I shouldn't be the one that has to go search it out! Let them tell me, not post something on a virtual board that may or may not be read.