Week 10

Whew! My head is spinning with so much new info. This post I ran across somewhere (who knows where) describes it very well: .......Rats, I can't find it. Figures! Here's a partial excerpt I found somewhere else:

"Worst of all, this onslaught is keeping us from doing the one thing that makes most of us the happiest... being in flow. Flow requires a depth of thinking and a focus of attention that all that context-switching prevents. Flow requires a challenging use of our knowledge and skills, and that's quite different from mindless tasks we can multitask (eating and watching tv, etc.) Flow means we need a certain amount of time to load our knowledge and skills into our brain RAM. And the more big or small interruptions we have, the less likely we are to ever get there.
And not only are we stopping ourselves from ever getting in flow, we're stopping ourselves from ever getting really good at something. From becoming experts. The brain scientists now tell us that becoming an expert is not a matter of being a prodigy, it's a matter of being able to focus.
We're already seeing a backlash response to info overload, and it seems like a good chunk of Web 2.0 VC investments are going to companies that promise to help us get/stay organized. There's a reason 43 Folders is a Top 100 blog, and it's got to be more than just Merlin Mann's good looks ; )
Lots of people are talking about this, and perhaps nobody more eloquently than Linda Stone:
"To pay continuous partial attention is to pay partial attention -- CONTINUOUSLY. It is motivated by a desire to be a LIVE node on the network. Another way of saying this is that we want to connect and be connected. 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 pay continuous partial attention in an effort NOT TO MISS ANYTHING. It is an always-on, anywhere, anytime, any place behavior that involves an artificial sense of constant crisis. We are always in high alert when we pay continuous partial attention. This artificial sense of constant crisis is more typical of continuous partial attention than it is of multi-tasking."

Anyway, I looked at Google Docs and Zoho. Liked the Google product better, again because of the simplicity of the interface. I Google Labs I tried Voice to search for pizza places in Issaquah. Who knew there are 8! I also tried Google Transit and it worked well, too. I went to the Web 2.0 Awards site and tried the sites under Personal Organization. HipCal was okay but I didn't see any ways to manipulate how your calendar would print out, which I'd like. I also took a look at Etsy and Judy's Book.