Continuous Partial Attention (continued)

Yesterday I ranted about Continuous Partial Attention, otherwise known as the Laptops in Meetings Disease. CPA has been around for a while, and it's not limited to using computers during meetings. I find myself unable, or unwilling, to focus on something in a variety of settings. And I'm not alone. We quip, "I'm just multi-tasking," which carries the pretense of being efficient, doing two or more things at once. But the reality is, you're not giving any one thing your full attention. Like:

  • Talking on the cell phone while driving.
  • Jotting down ideas for my Sunday night small group meeting during the sermon. Guilty.
  • Reading Newsweek while watching TV (though TV rarely deserves your full attention, unless it's "24" or Taylor Hicks is performing on American Idol).
  • Doing a project at work while chatting with someone via iChat (like, um, my wife; we're linked that way all day long).
  • Reading a magazine while eating, which I always do. No, that doesn't count, any more than eating popcorn while watching a movie does.
Can you think of other examples? I know there are gobs of them.

Posted on March 24, 2006 09:54 PM|

Post a comment

All comments are moderated, which means your comment won't appear until it's been approved. Thanks for your patience.

Name:
Email:
URL:
Comments:
(you may use HTML tags for style)