So you were assigned a 300-word essay to write out over a couple of days. Now, you had to make the decision of just how you would go about working on it. Well, your parents had told you to work hard and get it done beforehand, however 'things' have come up and you haven't been able to follow through. This paper is due tomorrow! Alright, so you sit down at your computer open a word document and start writing. By the time you get to word 50, the MSN messenger icon on your desktop seems very appealing. You think discussing your opinions with some of your friends might be helpful. You now also decide to to check your mail and while your at it why not quickly sign on to Facebook? Before you know it time is running out, and what you considered hard work has really just become a multi-tasking mess.
All our lives we've been told to work hard, to put all our efforts in all that we do. However, times have changed, and with time, people have changed as well. Working hard isn't the key to success anymore. Instead to achieve true success we should pay attention to paying attention! This idea is expressed in the article, Work Ethic 2.0: Attention Control by Mike Elgan, and is the article I will be reflecting upon in this blog entry.
We've all heard of multi-tasking and as well those who can multi-task. Ever since I learned the term, I considered being able to multi-task as a real advantage. It makes sense, being able to do more than one thing in the same amount of time that it takes to complete one task. But does this really give you an advantage over people who don't? Well, yes if you can manage to do all your tasks efficiently, but this is very hard to do. As the article states, "A person who works with total focus has an enormous advantage over a workaholic who's "multi-tasking" all day."
With today's technology, we are able to do almost everything using our computers and the Internet. As much as a convenience this may be for us, it's also a great distraction. From socializing to shopping, the internet allows us to access the world at our fingertips! However, we're almost taking all this great technology given to us for granted. We get carried away from task to task because of the millions of possibilities the internet gives us. This means that there is no limit to distractions when it comes to 'working hard' at something.
The worst part is, things are just going down from here. Another point that Mike Elgan makes is that today's generation has been placed infront of some kind of a screen from the very start. From the TV to the Computer and back to a video game. They're distraction addicts even before they're old enough to understand the damages being made. They have a constant need for amusement and can't sit still for very long. As mike Elgan puts it, "Their attention spans have been whittled down to seconds, and their expectations for constant amusement are highly developed." So how do we learn to focus on anything if we've become so used to being distracted?
The decision to make is almost like distinguishing between Eating and Eating Desert. Eating being something you need to do to survive, your focus, and eating desert being something you can live without, your distractions. To survive we need to eat well, but if we don't have desert after every meal it won't kill us right? On the other hand, if we forget to eat well and replace all our meals with sweet sugary delights, we won't make it very far. In other words we can't get distracted for even a second, or it just might throw everything we've worked for right into the garbage can.
Unfortunately no one else can do this for you. It's up to you to use your abilities to their extreme. Push yourself to focus. As Columnist David Brooks says, "Control of attention is the ultimate individual power. People who can do that are not prisoners of the stimuli around them." It's our task now to free ourselves from the attractions of the distractions!
No matter how much we sugar-coat it, the truth remains the truth. Working hard alone isn't working for us so we have to combine that with learning to focus, while fighting the urge to amuse ourselves. If we can master this, we might just have that 300-word essay done on time!
That's all for now,
--Amna
**The Title for this post comes from the song "2 + 2 = 5" By Radiohead.
All our lives we've been told to work hard, to put all our efforts in all that we do. However, times have changed, and with time, people have changed as well. Working hard isn't the key to success anymore. Instead to achieve true success we should pay attention to paying attention! This idea is expressed in the article, Work Ethic 2.0: Attention Control by Mike Elgan, and is the article I will be reflecting upon in this blog entry.
We've all heard of multi-tasking and as well those who can multi-task. Ever since I learned the term, I considered being able to multi-task as a real advantage. It makes sense, being able to do more than one thing in the same amount of time that it takes to complete one task. But does this really give you an advantage over people who don't? Well, yes if you can manage to do all your tasks efficiently, but this is very hard to do. As the article states, "A person who works with total focus has an enormous advantage over a workaholic who's "multi-tasking" all day."
With today's technology, we are able to do almost everything using our computers and the Internet. As much as a convenience this may be for us, it's also a great distraction. From socializing to shopping, the internet allows us to access the world at our fingertips! However, we're almost taking all this great technology given to us for granted. We get carried away from task to task because of the millions of possibilities the internet gives us. This means that there is no limit to distractions when it comes to 'working hard' at something.
The worst part is, things are just going down from here. Another point that Mike Elgan makes is that today's generation has been placed infront of some kind of a screen from the very start. From the TV to the Computer and back to a video game. They're distraction addicts even before they're old enough to understand the damages being made. They have a constant need for amusement and can't sit still for very long. As mike Elgan puts it, "Their attention spans have been whittled down to seconds, and their expectations for constant amusement are highly developed." So how do we learn to focus on anything if we've become so used to being distracted?
The decision to make is almost like distinguishing between Eating and Eating Desert. Eating being something you need to do to survive, your focus, and eating desert being something you can live without, your distractions. To survive we need to eat well, but if we don't have desert after every meal it won't kill us right? On the other hand, if we forget to eat well and replace all our meals with sweet sugary delights, we won't make it very far. In other words we can't get distracted for even a second, or it just might throw everything we've worked for right into the garbage can.
Unfortunately no one else can do this for you. It's up to you to use your abilities to their extreme. Push yourself to focus. As Columnist David Brooks says, "Control of attention is the ultimate individual power. People who can do that are not prisoners of the stimuli around them." It's our task now to free ourselves from the attractions of the distractions!
No matter how much we sugar-coat it, the truth remains the truth. Working hard alone isn't working for us so we have to combine that with learning to focus, while fighting the urge to amuse ourselves. If we can master this, we might just have that 300-word essay done on time!
That's all for now,
--Amna
**The Title for this post comes from the song "2 + 2 = 5" By Radiohead.
1 comments:
Great analogy about eating.
Excellent work Amna!
A+ (and not just because you referenced Radiohead)
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