A post on Lifehack.org brought to my attention a Google blog entry about RSI (repetitive stress injury) written by a resident physician at Google headquarters (!). This is not exactly breaking news, but the article offers a concise guide to avoiding RSI with helpful links.
Reading this reminded me of a post I read on RandsInRepose about RII, or repetitive information injury. The author suffers from NADD (Nerd Attention Deficiency Disorder), characterized by an uncontrollable desire to discover new information.
Usually this isn't a problem, because nerds have a great capacity for storing and accessing all this information. But everyone has a tipping point and that's when RII sets in.
Often it takes the form of an obsessive loop. "Your brain is thinking it's more important to continue to find something to soak in rather than moving on to your next project." That means checking email every 5 minutes, refreshing feeds every 3.4 minutes, thinking up new Google searches every 1.9 minutes.
Although these activities are more interesting and informative than playing solitaire, the effect is similar. You're just looping and not moving forward.
The tips for avoiding RSI will work for RII too. Take breaks (enforced by alarms), stretch and avert your gaze from the computer! Those are all interruption techniques that can help you break the loop. When you stage an interruption, you have the opportunity to reflect on what you've been doing and refocus.
Excellent description of my situation. I´ll try to keep your advice.
Posted by: Saudade | April 26, 2006 9:00 AM | Permalink to Comment