Linda Stone does a nice job of summarizing the dilemma many of us face with her brief essay Continuous Partial Attention. Stone writes,
To pay continuous partial attention is to pay partial attention — CONTINUOUSLY. . . We want to effectively scan for opportunity and optimize for the best opportunities, activities, and contacts, in any given moment. To be busy, to be connected, is to be alive, to be recognized and to matter.
We have focused on managing our time. Our opportunity is to focus on how we manage our attention. We are evolving beyond an always-on lifestyle. As we make choices to turn the technology OFF, to give full attention to others in interactions, to block out interruption-free time, and to use the full range of communication tools more appropriately, we will re-orient our trek toward a path of more engaged attention . . .
This, to me, is the key insight of David Allen’s much-lauded Getting Things Done. I’ve always felt I was fairly productive, but definitely had attention issues that left me stressed and was inefficient. Allen’s idea of getting everything you need to do out of your head and into some sort of system so you can focus on accomplishing one task at a time really changed how I approached all of the things I need to get done.
Which is not to say that I never do the ADHD five things at a time. I do that a lot and it is often psychologically pleasurable. But I no longer fool myself into thinking that I can be very productive doing that.