Comments on: Your brain hates Twitter.

By: Tim Walker

Tim Walker — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 14:43:21 +0000

Paul, I agree with most everything you say here except “oddly.” LOTS of people find they’re more productive when put into settings like that — or (e.g.) on the plane away from distractions.

One note: we each have to parse how effective we are in our job functions via Twitter, e-mail, and other communication tools. I know people who are hugely productive at their jobs by being on the phone all day, but if I spend more than five minutes a day on the phone, it drives me crazy.

By: Paul Brownell

Paul Brownell — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 20:21:32 +0000

I find that I have to reserve time for myself to really focus on important tasks. Otherwise I can distract myself for hours on urgent-but-not-important (http://tewalkerjr.com/blog/?p=921) tasks. On the other hand, I need a break from time to time to let my brain run free and have fun. That’s when I turn to Twitter, email, or just checking stock prices to see who is winning the Wall Street race today.

Oddly, I get my most productive work done when I travel to remote offices. There I don’t have a regular schedule, and the fact that I will be there for only a short period of time helps me focus on what I must achieve while there.

By: Ari Herzog

Ari Herzog — Wed, 27 May 2009 23:58:09 +0000

Put it this way: I accomplished some activities today that wouldn’t have occurred–they would have been postponed another day–if I had a Twitter screen open.

By: Russ Somers

Russ Somers — Wed, 27 May 2009 23:09:46 +0000

Very true on the flow observation. When I’m heads-down in planning, analysis or writing I shut down Outlook, Twitter and everything else. That leaves just driveby interruptions and the phone.

I work in a very real-time environment, though. If I let an email go unanswered for over an hour the sender will come by to see why I’ve not answered it (or maybe to make sure I’m still alive). And there are sometimes good reasons for that; if my answer is all that stands in the way of a sale being closed, I’m happy to disrupt my flow.

By: Stuart Foster

Stuart Foster — Wed, 27 May 2009 22:46:39 +0000

I’d say that Twitter acts as a sort of break for my mind. I go to it when I stop doing regular work or I need to crowdsource the answer to a question.

I can either get engrossed or I can do a quick hit. The beauty of Twitter is that you can have a conversation that last 3-5 days. But maybe only invest 10 minutes. Cool stuff.

By: John Johansen

John Johansen — Wed, 27 May 2009 21:52:40 +0000

I would relate this to how much we are focusing on the appearance of work vs. getting work done.

With so many disruptions that already exist in the work day — email, meetings, fire drills — I know many people who already feel that they actually get their work done after hours. During the day, we want to look like we are working by jumping on all the things that could be considered distractions.

Twitter fits perfectly into that model.

So I would agree with the larger point, if we really want to create more productive time at work, don’t blame Twitter. We need to re-evaluate what tasks we prioritize during our workday overall.