Thursday, February 3, 2011

Week 5 - Halfway!

Wednesdays are now my favorite days. My Mondays and Tuesdays are so long because of seminars at night. Wednesday is the first day of the week where I get to come back for dinner. Last quarter, I spent a lot of time in my apartment and really enjoyed being able to relax during meal times. I typically watch an episode or two of Detective Conan while eating. I think watching TV, movies, etc are really relaxing because things just happen on the screen without any effort or input from the viewer. Definitely took a longer time to relax before starting to do work again.

I read an article recently, can't remember from where, about where people work best. The article was about someone who found that the office environment is not where people work best because of distractions like interruptions and meetings. He says that work is like sleep, you have to have a long period of time to do it. And if someone interrupts you (while you work/sleep), you need to start all over again. If you keep getting interrupted, then it's impossible for you to do real work (get into deep sleep). He proposes that offices should try out things like, "no talking Thursdays" where people are not allowed to interrupt other people on Thursday afternoons. Emails are okay though because people can check their emails when they want to. It's a voluntary distraction. I think I agree with having a long stretch of period to work. It's really hard for me to make use of 1 hour breaks that I have during the day. I always wait until I have a long stretch of time before starting on a new homework. But I think there's a difference between starting something new and continuing something that you have been working on. It definitely helps to take breaks and come back to something that you've started. Anyway, I've always wondering how middle managers get work done since they're supposed to be helping out the younger people and have to attend meetings with the higher-ups. Hm...

Tomorrow will be a semi-long day because I have a meeting in the morning and then holding a tutorial session in the afternoon. I'm holding two sessions to help students learn to use a software. It shouldn't be too difficult but hopefully the number of students will be evenly spread out for the two sessions. Always a challenge. My last quarter at school is almost half way through! This week is Week 5 but it feels like I've just gotten settled in with this new schedule. The quarter goes by so quickly.

2 comments:

docey101 said...

yeah! being interrupted when you're focused on doing something is really bothersome. it's really weird.. first, i have to make up my mind to do something--second, i have to commit to doing it, right now!, third, you start doing it, fourth, you get into it, fifth, things are starting to roll, 6, you're done. to be interrupted in the process means you have to start over again, unless you take a voluntary break to refresh yourself, which is as you mentioned, different. 1/3 of the battle is to make up your mind when to start and initiating!! that's why i only leave the aim on if i'm available to get distracted, otherwise, i'm offline. did i blog about this article? http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/16/science/16tier.html?_r=1&src=ISMR_HP_LO_MST_FB

Y said...

the interruption thing is definitely true, there are studies to back it up.

but what you said about emails being voluntary, i dont know.. sure, checking my personal email is voluntary but checking work email while at work is not really voluntary. people expect that you read email immediately unless you're occupied (in a meeting, eating, away from computer...) - i was reading a book where a guy was saying he trained his employees that he would only check email twice a day (he was the boss) but i'm not sure a lot of companies go for this method, haha...