A Better Way of Working Blog

Thoughts and ideas about transforming the way the world works

Three Powerful Lessons I Learned When I Got Offline
Mental Needs, Renewal, Technology | COMMENTS | January 4, 2012
I hadn't been offline for more than a few hours in two and a half years — and only then because I was on safari in Botswana and had no choice.Typically, the first thing I would do when I got up in the morning was to get on my laptop to check a series of sites, including Twitter, Facebook, Google Analytics, and HBR.org, to see what comments my blogs had accumulated overnight.
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Tony Schwartz
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Take Back Your Attention
Focus, Mental Needs, Technology | 11 COMMENTS | February 10, 2011
As I sit down to write this blog, I'm facing a blank page. I know it's going to be difficult, because it always is. Maybe I'll just check my email first, or update on Facebook or Twitter, or read the morning headlines on The New York Times, or sneak a peak at Google Analytics, or read the comments readers have left overnight on my earlier posts.
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Tony Schwartz
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When Collaboration Becomes Distraction
Mental Needs, TBYL, Technology | COMMENTS | January 26, 2011
Now, more than ever, it is easy to consistently stay in touch with our entire teams. Even business tools like Salesforce give users the opportunity to message back and forth and make comments on each other’s activities. In some ways, this provides an ideal working environment, where people from all over the world can communicate, from their offices or the comfort of their own homes. Collaboration allows people to work together and often improve the quality of their work and their productivity and efficiency.
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Emily Pines
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Digital Incivility: The Unseemly Rise of Rudeness
Email, Mental Needs, Technology | COMMENTS | September 14, 2010
In its early days, one of the joys of email was the access it provided to people who might otherwise be inaccessible, or very difficult to reach. I still remember a New Yorker article written by John Seabrook in 1994, which was effectively my introduction to this new technology. Titled "Email from Bill," it was written as an exchange of a series of emails between Seabrook and Bill Gates.
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Tony Schwartz
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The Energy Coach: Dean: "Dean? Are You There?"
Email, Energy Coach, Focus, Mental Needs, Technology | COMMENTS | August 2, 2010
“I hate conference calls,” Dean admitted to me on a break during a recent session I was facilitating.  “No matter how hard I try, I just can’t seem to focus during them.”  As part of a select group of leaders chosen for a high potential program at a global food company, Dean was a bit sheepish about his conference call behavior. The Rationalization: “I know that I shouldn’t multi-task while on them, but I’m on so many conference calls every day that I need to use the time to get other things done.” 
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Catherine McCarthy
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