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Dec 1, 2004

"Workers can turn the ringer off the phones, possibly close doors, auto-filter e-mail, and personalize search engines, and ask people to honor privacy, but blocking out sacred time segments or sealing ourselves off from outside contact, even e-mail, isn't a real option with most organizations." --David Kirsh

Cognitive Overload

Richard Levy has a plan that's part technology, part caffeine, part rolled-up-sleeves simplicity: take a data Sabbath one day a week. The University of Washington professor says that technology tools have made our lives simpler but have also stirred up deep unease. The need for speed is shrinking our attention spans, prompting our search for answers to take the mile-wide-but-inch-deep route and settling us into a rhythm of constant interruption in which deadlines are relentless and tasks are never quite finished. Cognitive overload, the scientists call it.