If you're old enough, think back to the year 1999. I was at college then and I had an email account, but no cellphone on which to constantly check it. I mostly used my boxy desktop computer to type out papers. Even Friendster wasn't out yet, and my primary experience of online life was playing around in AOL chatrooms in a high school friend's basement.
The unplugged way I and many others lived back then may sound peaceful looking back. But -- and I hate to break it to you -- scientists were already worried that constant interruptions were robbing knowledge workers of their ability to be productive at work.
The good news is even way back then, their research discovered a way to shut out distractions and radically increase how much we're able to get done at work -- and it's a simple protocol that could work in 2023 as well as 1999. The bad news is, most of us still aren't using it... more
(Inc)
