Monday, August 17, 2015

Blue Monday

A photo posted by Nazila (@nazilam) on

Happy Monday. 

My Mac picked up some weird malware that hijacked my Chrome browser and it took me nearly two hours to figure out how to tackle it. I’m not sure I did the right thing, but I reset my Chrome settings, installed some malware software remover  that was recommended. I ended up ditching Chrome and removed the application. I may go back to it, but not until I’m certain everything is copacetic.

While I was trying to extract myself from this irritation, I realized that I could work unplugged and get more done with less (distractions). Why do we have this deep seated need to read status updates for things that only serve to muddle up our thought processes?  Why bother checking mail on your laptop when you can do it on your phone and be done sooner.   Why bother checking your mail at all?

Many companies are abandoning email all together and using tools like Slack or Hipchat to communicate internally and share assets via these services. I’m still not convinced that this is a way to conduct all communication or work, but how lovely it would be if you could unsubscribe from threads of conversations that you don’t really need to be part of  or tell the world you are away with a emoticon of a sleeping koala bear?

We tend to say the same things when we’re communicating by email as when we talk to our colleagues. While some things bear repeating, if this information was delivered quickly via a internal messaging system, questions could be answered quickly and succinctly and we could use that five minute water cooler conversation talking about solutions instead of setting up the scenario or problem we’re trying to solve.

Why is it that we’re so fast to answer a text and so dread answering email?

I’m going to try this unplugging while working for the rest of the week – maybe I’ll see a rise in my productivity or at least a decrease in my dislike for the sharing aspect of the web.



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