Focuscrime: Maxims and Mantras for Recovering Multitaskers and the Desperately Distracted

Book excerpt: "WE PURSUE BAD time management strategies like multitasking because we want to be productive. Unfortunately, the practice of multitasking invariably leads to ineffectiveness and inefficiency. Productivity, it turns out, is largely a function of singletasking." -- The Productive Luddite. FOCUSCRIME CONTAINS OVER 100 maxims and mantras for recovering multitaskers and the desperately distracted. WHAT IS A FOCUSCRIME? Anything that steals focus away from the task at hand is an offence to productivity and creativity. Focuscrime is about better time management. WHEN YOU FIND yourself committing a focuscrime or acting as an accomplice (witting or unwitting) to a focuscrime, stop what you're doing. Read this book from cover to cover. When you find yourself multitasking, stop. Read this book from cover to cover. When you find yourself in the midst of being distracted and you know this distraction was entirely avoidable, stop. Read this book from cover to cover. When you realize that you're busy, but not busy on things you've given priority to, stop. Read this book from cover to cover. When you feel overwhelmed and angry with the endless river of emails, instant messages, tweets, and the relentless beeping of alarms, alerts, and phones, stop what you're doing. Read this book from cover to cover. When you feel yourself drowning in work, unfulfilled and frustrated with your Digital Life, stop what you're doing. Read this book from cover to cover. READING AND REPEATING these maxims and mantras supports the development of focus and the habit of singletasking and the elimination of self-destructive habits like multitasking and chronic distraction. RECOMMENDED DOSAGE: READ DAILY OR AS NECESSARY UNTIL THE SYMPTOMS OF MULTITASKING AND DISTRACTION ARE RESOLVED. Includes "The Eight Analog Truths of Digital Life."