Mike Rohde wrote the other day on a podcast that addressed the concept of “Continuous Partial Attention”.  As Mike points out, this is not about multitasking, but the continuous monitoring of possible inputs from technology.  It also is based on the premise that the modern geek is constantly connected to the “Network”.  I count myself among these modern geeks.

I should start this out by defining what my inputs are.  Throughout the day, I get information delivered to me via my palm Treo.  This could just as easily be my work computer or my home computer, but I have routed everything through my treo, as it is the one computer that is on my person all day. 

Throughout the day I am notified of things that are happening right now.  I get email from more than five accounts, I’m notified about breaking news, I get email notifications of blog comments, I get text messages from friends and family, meeting reminders, task reminders, and of course phone calls.  All of these inputs make my phone vibrate on my hip, and I admit that I almost always pull it out to see what the alert is about.

I say almost, because there are times when it is simply rude to stop the conversation and look at my treo.  I’m not one of those people that will drop a person to person conversation in order to check my treo.  I get too many inputs for that.  To be polite, I simply silence the phone in my pocket without taking it out.  I have it set up to remind me of these things in five minutes.

Being constantly connectted certainly does offer the opportunity for distraction.  But I prefer not to look at it that way.  It is always my choice to respond to an alert or phone call, or email.  Personally, I find it remarkably convienient, to have real time delivery of my relevant information.  If something is time sensitive, then I can respond.  If it is not time sensitive, then I can mark it for future processing and deal with it at an appropriate time. 

But all of this comes back to the concept of attention.  I’m notoriously ADD, and I am often scattered and bouncing from one thing to another.  But my assitant is constantly bring me back to the present moment, delivering information needed right now.  All of my daily tasks are scheduled at times when I am likely to have the time to act on the reminder, so I tend to get things at appropriate times.  (For example, my regular house work reminders are scheduled half an hour after I arrive home from work.)  It allows me to manage my time and attention and supplies me with enough information to make adjustments to things on the fly. 

There are some tools that help filter the inputs based on time and context.  I use Callfilter to regulate phone calls and sms messages throughout my day.  Personal calls get routed to voicemail directly during working hours, and the phone radio gets turned off completely when I am in a meeting.  This is just another layer of directing inputs appropriately.

It has taken some time to get my inputs to an acceptable level, and to gain control of when these things are delivered. Even now I get the occasional glitch that causes a completely inappropriate alert, but they are few and far between now.

I honestly don’t feel taxed by this type of networked living.  Being a node on the network doesn’t cause anxiety or adrenaline pumped days.  (Although some of the content can induce anxiety sometimes…)  All of these inputs allow me to particiate at work, in life at the yacht club, in my family life, and in the blogosphere. 

So what do you think?  Are you at peace with your “connection” or do you long for the days when things were simpler and slower.  Leave me a comment, and I promise I’ll read it promptly, although it may take a little time for me to respond.