Seven Suggestions for Messy Times

This morning’s presenter at NYSAIS – Mark Hurst – author of Bit Literacy

And here they are: the techniques to liberate ourselves from enslaving technologies:
1. Empty your inbox every day. And he promises this is doable and easy. Delete, delete, delete, store, move to action list.
2. Use a single to-do list.
3. Do one thing at a time. (See the Stanford study on multi-tasking. Result: Even the best multi-taskers don’t do anything verymark-hurst-headshot175b well. It’s more respectful as well as more efficient.)
4. Learn to type. The QWERTY keyboard layout was designed deliberately to slow down too fast typing in the day of mechanical typewriters. It slows you down. Learn to touch type with DVORAK. It’s faster, easier to learn and much more comfortable.
5. Manage your media diet. Know what you want to consume and why. Then don’t feel guilty. Learn the skill of managing the mix without overload.
6. Make room for creativity. This is why steps 1-5 are important. It’s all about making room and finding time for creativity.

“I tap-dance to work, and when I get there it’s tremendous fun.”- Warren Buffett.

7. Take time off. Take time off every day. Be in control of technology not the other way around.
“…the Elements of Style for the digital age.”
– Seth Godin on Bit Literacy.

JosieHolford

View Comments

  • One Response to “Many minds, many voices, many stories”
    Susan Scheid Says:

    October 8, 2009 at 4:43 pm
    Josie, the Adichie piece is brilliant–on so many levels. I listened to it the whole way through–and you know how rare that is. I also passed it to my writing “mate,” Carol-Ann, who was born and raised in South Africa. I will send you on, by e-mail, what she wrote. She, too, listened to it the whole way through.

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