Interuption Science
by Paul Miller
Strange things are happening in the Demos office today. Our email is bust so people are having to work out how to live without it. It's quite a shock to the system.
But maybe it's not such a bad thing - there have been a couple of really interesting articles recently about interuption science and how it's beginning to influence the design of software and computer interfaces.
It's a serious business. According to the Institute for the Future typical employees send and receive, on average, 178 messages each day via email, phone, voice mail, fax, and pager. The typical employee has to stop work to answer messages three times every hour. There's a lot of money to be made in helping people work out how to be more productive (just ask David Allen).
First piece is by Clive Thompson in the New York Times Magazine (sub reqd) a couple of weeks back which shows just how much interest there is in the field.
Second is by Demos friend Steven Johnson in Discover magazine and is more about how to seal yourself off. Apparently even Bill Gates takes a week off computers each year.
Oh and if you want help in making your life easier, also take a look at 43folders or Lifehacker.