- Discovery 1 2 – Make Your Desktop Less Distracting Attention
- Discovery 1 2 – Make Your Desktop Less Distracting Screen
- Discovery 1 2 – Make Your Desktop Less Distracting Busy
- Discovery 1 2 – Make Your Desktop Less Distracting Things
Artboard 2 2 0 7. “Simplicity is ultimately a matter of focus.” — Ann Voskamp
Our world has become a constant feed of information, noise, and entertainment. Our phones live not just in our pockets, but in front of our eyes. The influence of the Internet and its constant stream of information is accessible from nearly corner of our world. Breaking news breaks into our day at breakneck speed. And we are fed messages relentlessly from advertisements on nearly every flat surface. Each distraction enters our mind with one goal: Gain control of our attention and resources.
As a result, we live distracted lives and our ability to focus, create, and accomplish suffers significantly. It is increasingly clear that distractions are not going away on their own. Instead, the responsibility is ours to live attentive, intentional lives in a world of distraction. This is a goal we must continue to seek.
To live life with less distraction, consider implementing one or more of these 10 unconventional habits:
However, it’s worth noting that reasonable service and repair costs and, more importantly, low depreciation help the Discovery to mitigate those expenses, especially if you go for the best-selling 2.0-litre diesel model. As a result, it's actually not too expensive a car to buy and own, when all is said and done. Personalize your workplace. Striking a work-life balance is a challenge, especially on your desk. Family photos, vacation mementos, your favourite figurine, a plant or even an amusing coffee cup can brighten up your space, make you feel more like home and bring you some inspiration.
1. Turn off smart phone notifications. Our smart phones have quickly become one of the greatest sources of distraction in our lives. The average person now checks their mobile phone 150 times every day (just short of every 6 waking minutes). To limit the distractive nature of your smart phone, turn off all nonessential notifications (Email, Facebook, Twitter, Games, etc.) as a default setting. As a result, you will be able to check your apps on your schedule at appropriate times throughout the day.
2. Read/Answer email only twice each day. When we keep our email client open all day, we surrender our attention to the most recent bidder rather than the most important. The sooner we realize this, the sooner we understand why the habit of checking email only twice/day is promoted over and over again by some of the most productive people in our world today (Michael Hyatt, Scott Belsky, Leo Babauta). Schedule your email processing. You will feel the benefits immediately as the habit instantly limits incoming distraction.
3. Complete 1-2 minute projects immediately. Our lives and minds are often cluttered and distracted by the many unfinished projects around us (unanswered email, household chores, financial responsibilities). Fortunately, many of these projects can be completed in far less time than we think. To live with less distraction, if a project can be completed in less than 2 minutes, adopt a “one-minute-rule” mentality.
4. Remove physical clutter. Unnecessary clutter is a significant form of visual distraction. Consider this: everything in our eyesight subtly pulls at our attention at least a little. And the more we remove, the less visual stress and distraction we experience. Clear your desk, your walls, your counters, and your home of unneeded possessions. You’ll be surprised at your newfound ability to focus.
5. Clear visible, distracting digital clutter. Just like physical clutter distracts our attention, digital clutter accomplishes the same. Desktop icons, open programs, and other visible notifications jockey for unannounced attention in our mind. Notice the digital triggers that grab your attention. And ruthlessly remove them.
6. Accept and accentuate your personal rhythms. Discover the rhythms of your day to make the most of them. For example, I do my best creative work in the morning, afternoons work well for busy-work, and evenings are set aside for family—leaving late evenings for entertainment, rest, and guilt-free distraction. Accepting and understanding our natural rhythms to the day/week provides healthy motivation to remove distractions during our most productive parts of the day knowing there is opportunity later to indulge them
7. Establish a healthy morning routine. Henry Ward Beecher once said, “The first hour is the rudder of the day.” He was absolutely right. Begin your days on your terms apart from distraction. If possible, wake first in your household. Drink your coffee or tea or fix yourself a warm breakfast. Journal or read or just enjoy the silence. Develop a distraction-free morning routine. It will lay the foundation for a less-distracted day.
8. Cancel cable / Unplug television. It is difficult to argue against the distracting nature of our television. Researchers tell us the average American watches 37-40 hours of television each week. There is, of course, a solution to this madness: unplug your television completely. But if this step seems too drastic a stretch for your family, you’ll never regret the simple decision to cancel cable. Your calendar will thank you for the extra time available. Your wallet will thank you for the extra dollars. And you’ll quickly wonder why you didn’t do it sooner.
9. Keep a to-do list. One of the most helpful and practical pieces of advice I ever received about keeping focus is the simple solution of keeping a to-do list handy and current. No matter how hard you try to manage yourself, new responsibilities and opportunities will surface in your mind from internal and external sources. The opportunity to quickly write down the task allows it to be quickly discarded from your mind. I use Clear as a simple, easy-to-use opportunity list.
10. Care less what other people think. The value of your life is not measured by the number of likes your Facebook post receives or the number of positive comments on your blog post. Please understand, there is great value in humbly seeking opinion and appreciating the wise counsel of those who love you. But there is no value in wasting mental energy over the negative criticism of those who only value their own self-interests. Learn to recognize the difference. And stop living distracted over the opinion of people who don’t matter.
There is little doubt our world is filled with constant distraction—it always has been. And there is little doubt that those who achieve the greatest significance in life learn to manage it effectively—they always have.
Smart utility 3 2 5 x 8. Image: Richard Ruzsa
It is sometimes helpful to talk about 'Levels' of Questions. This concept is not new, and different workshops or different subject areas define the levels a little differently. That doesn't matter - what matters is clarifying them in a way you can live with in order to give your students a tool for asking better and more diverse questions. These aren't things I'd quiz my kids on per se - at least not in the sense of having them put stuff in categories and count them right or wrong. They're tools, not scientific classifications.
Level 1 Questions
Deal with factual information you can find printed in the story / document / whatever. They usually have ONE correct answer.
Level 1 Questions often…
- clarify vocabulary or basic facts
- check for Understanding
- ask for more information
It is often difficult to ask or answer Level 2 Questions without plenty of Level 1 information!
Examples: Who led Confederate forces at the Battle of Gettysburg? When did Abraham Lincoln die? How many people died of disease or other non-combat causes during the Civil War? Where is Antietam?
Level 2 Questions
Deal with factual information but can have more than one defensible answer. Although there can be more than one ‘good’ answer, your answers should be defended or opposed with material FROM the story or related materials.
Level 2 Questions might…
- require “Processing” of Information—analyze, synthesize, evaluate, articulate
- require making inferences from the text
- seek understanding from someone who knows more or has larger perspective
- challenge the author (why did you include this but not that, or why was this phrased a certain way?)
Level 2 Questions are often the Meat & Potatoes of Social Studies, and require Level 1 information as support. They seek informed opinions. They are often the stuff we most wish our students could ask, ponder, or answer intelligently. Come to think of it, they’re the stuff we wish other adults could ask, ponder, or answer intelligently.
Examples: Why did the North win the Civil War? Was Lincoln justified in suspending some rights during the war? To what extent was slavery the true cause of the war? How did the North’s war aims change over the course of the war and why?
Level 3 Questions
Discovery 1 2 – Make Your Desktop Less Distracting Attention
Deal with ideas beyond the text but which might be prompted by the story / document / whatever. The assigned material is a ‘launching pad’ for these sorts of questions, but responding to them requires going well beyond the original material.
Level 3 Questions are useful as…
- “Big Picture” Questions, to make connections
- interest-builders, discussion-starters, and thought-provokers
- ways to get your teacher off topic so you don’t have as much work to do
English Teachers love Level 3 Questions, but in the Social Studies we use them more carefully. Sometimes they’re more appropriate for discussions with your parents, pastors, or best friends. Other times they're the most important questions there are.
Examples: Is war ever justified? Did Robert E. Lee go to Heaven? What would you be willing to kill somebody for? Is it true Lincoln’s ghost is still haunting the White House? How would the U.S. be different today if the South had won the Civil War?
Sometimes what 'Level' a question best fits depends on how much information you have available or to which you have access. Don't get too hung up on correct categories so much as stretching the sorts of questions students ask.
I'd never grade my kids specifically on putting questions into the 'right' categories. What I do hope to help them think about, however, is the importance of understanding WHAT sort of question is being asked - whether we're trying to dig around in history or address modern-day dilemmas. So often we think we're arguing when we're not even confronting the same sorts of questions.
For example - global warming. To discuss global warming and what, if anything, to do about it, we first need to determine what facts are available. We may argue about the facts, but at least we'll be wrestling through the same issue. That's Level One information, and it matters in this discussion.
We also need to figure out the best way to interpret those facts, once agreed upon. What do they mean, why are they what they are, etc.? Again, we may not agree, but at least we'll be on the same subject. That's a Level Two conversation.
Finally, what should we do about the facts and our conclusions? Is the issue important? What's likely to happen if we purseu Course A vs. Course B vs. Course C vs. just ignoring it? That's a whole other type of conversation to have - a Level Three issue.
Too often, we never get past one person arguing about what changes we need to make while the other hasn't yet accepted the basic facts being used as support. Or we think we're debating what the facts mean when in reality we're debating the nature of reality or the ethics of hoping the supernatural will intervene at some point.
Discovery 1 2 – Make Your Desktop Less Distracting Screen
Getting on the same level of discussion in no way guarantees consensus, but it's an essential element of any meaningful progress towards deeper understanding or potential agreement.
Discovery 1 2 – Make Your Desktop Less Distracting Busy
Discovery 1 2 – Make Your Desktop Less Distracting Things
On a smaller, 'let's just pass high school first then worry about that other stuff' scale, Practicing Inquiry helps foster interest. It increases recognition and retention of essential information. It's foundational to critical thinking. Finally, it's a critical element of effective reading - Cornell Notes, Dialectic Journals, Annotation, Think-Alouds, etc., all build on the idea that reading is an interaction with the text, and that questions are an essential part of that interaction. But that's for another page.