ALERT! REMINDER! REPEAT! How Can We Get Anything Done These Days?
Your morning begins as you look over your list of to-dos for the day. Half way through you get a few emails that pop up. Trying to be proactive, you stop what you're doing and take time and respond to what is immediate and then get back to your to-do list. You get through a couple more items on your list and you get a text message from an old friend. Feeling guilty since you haven't talked to this friend in a while, you take the time to reply.
OK now getting back to your to-do list. Then you get a reminder on your phone about a meeting you have in one hour so you try your hardest to breeze through your to-do list again. Just then the receptionist buzzes you about a call from an important client. You drop what you are doing and talk through a few details with your client. After hanging up, you see your inbox now has 5 new emails. Suddenly your text goes off and it's your old friend again. You stop to read the text and decide to respond later. (I'm sure you'll remember to do that.) So, back to the to-do list. Or should you see what the emails are in regards to? Finally you get through the to-do list. Time to get into your meeting.
The moral of the story is pretty simple. How many alerts or texts or calls can one digest before the anxiety drives you to the brink? In today's world, marketers are looking for new ways to speak with customers and engage them in ways that have never been done before – whether it's a banner ad of a product you just looked at on Amazon or a text message alert you received when your location based app is within a mile of Walgreens.
How can anyone actually get anything done or have time to think about things in their life without getting interrupted at an alarming rate? My wish for the future is for people to stop interrupting me. Sure, I want to answer your call, email, text, and yes I like to know what deals you have for me. The catch is, I want to do it on my own schedule and that schedule involves having a complete thought and finishing what I started. Just sayin'.
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