Two frequent readers of this blog, Brad Berens and "Frequent Reader", commented on my Laughing at Myself post. Sometimes I'm aware when I'm doing participant/observation of something I'm researching, sometimes I'm not. This time, NextStage has been doing some very preliminary research into how people divide their attention on different tasks. This line of research isn't new, we've done similar studies several times in the past. Once, when asked if we had any "mobile" research I answered with "Not exactly. We've studied how people allocate their attention when their mobile, not just on mobile phones."
The person asking the question didn't appreciate that our study included mobile phone use, all they could focus on was "...not just on mobile phones" and became another data point in the study.
So over the past few weeks and probably intentionally at some level (I share in my presentations that the non-conscious mind is far more intelligent than the conscious mind. Often I'll realize after I've done something "spontaneously" that there was a remarkably good reason for it and that I was unaware of the reason until after the fact. That's the non-conscious in action) I allowed myself to get distracted. Fortunately part of my training is the ability to recognize and record things even when I'm distracted (the joy of discipline. Sometimes you do something simply because you've always done it).
More to follow...
(Ah, just reading that, you know I'm back)
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