--- title: "Respecting Time and Attention" id: "1132" type: "post" slug: "respecting-time-and-attention" published_at: "2010-05-25T21:54:39+00:00" modified_at: "2012-06-03T02:46:01+00:00" url: "https://johnpoelstra.com/respecting-time-and-attention/" markdown_url: "https://johnpoelstra.com/respecting-time-and-attention.md" excerpt: "I love the beauty and rebound affect of sharing information. I posted about Merlin Mann’s talk at Rutgers and James remind me that I had given him the idea of keeping separate question lists for different people a long time......" taxonomy_category: - "Productivity" taxonomy_post_tag: - "attention" - "config" - "interruptions" - "merlin mann" - "minimizing" - "question list" - "respect" - "snippet" - "time" --- [Skip to the content](#site-content) [John Poelstra](https://johnpoelstra.com) ### Bringing order to chaos and clarity to confusion - [One Conversation](https://johnpoelstra.com/) - [Podcast](https://johnpoelstra.com/category/podcast/) - [Coaching for Directors](https://johnpoelstra.com/coach/) - [About](https://johnpoelstra.com/about/) Toggle search field - [One Conversation](https://johnpoelstra.com/) - [Podcast](https://johnpoelstra.com/category/podcast/) - [Coaching for Directors](https://johnpoelstra.com/coach/) - [About](https://johnpoelstra.com/about/) # [Respecting Time and Attention](https://johnpoelstra.com/respecting-time-and-attention/) I love the beauty and rebound affect of sharing information. I [posted](https://johnpoelstra.com/2010/05/23/time-and-attention/) about [Merlin Mann’s talk at Rutgers](http://www.43folders.com/2010/04/27/impro-talk) and [James](http://jlaska.wordpress.com/) remind me that I had given him the idea of keeping separate question lists for different people a long time ago. My original idea was simply to keep a running list of topics I wanted to discuss with certain people on the phone. Merlin takes it a slightly different direction by suggesting we respect other people’s time and attention by keeping a running list of questions for them instead of interrupting them every time something comes to mind. When the list gets to 4 or 5 questions you set up a time to meet with them so that they are only interrupted once. There are situations where this makes sense. A lot depends on the context and type of work. There are obvious exceptions to this. Instant messenger (IM) softens this somewhat from the more the formal, in person information exchanges that were more traditional in past office environments. I’ve been in offices where IMing the person next to you was more polite than getting up and going over to talk to them. Some studies have shown it takes up to 20 minutes to refocus and regain your concentration after being interrupted. IM can provide a softer interruption depending on how the other person uses IM. [James Laska](http://jlaska.wordpress.com/) takes the maintenance of these lists to a higher level with the simple function below (used with his permission). 1. Add this code to your `~/.bashrc` ``` notes() { local person=${1:-$USER} status_dir="$HOME/Documents/People/$person" status_file="notes.txt" if [ -d "$status_dir" ]; then echo "Accessing notes for '$person'" else echo -n "No notes exist for '$person', create them? [y|n]: " while read YESNO; do case $YESNO in y*|Y*) break ;; n*|N*) echo "Exiting at user request" return 1 ;; *) echo -n "No notes exist for '$person', create them? [y|n]: " read YESNO ;; esac done echo "Creating notes for '$person'" mkdir -p "$status_dir" fi vim "$status_dir/$status_file" } ``` 2. Then source it so your current shell has the function ``` $ . ~/.bashrc ``` 3. Call up your note file for a person: ``` $ notes jlaska ``` #### John Poelstra John Poelstra, CPA, coaches directors in finance and software. Certified and trained by the Co-Active Training Institute, he has coached for more than 10 years, with over 520 clients and 3,150 sessions, including people at well-known Fortune 100 companies. In over 30 years of professional experience, he spent 25 in technology and finance: software testing, project management and team leadership at Red Hat and Dell/EMC, and finance as a bank auditor at Wells Fargo and a CPA at Grant Thornton. He hosts The John Poelstra Show podcast and is based in Portland, Oregon. [Author archive](https://johnpoelstra.com/author/john-poelstra/) [Author website](https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-john-poelstra-show/id1130635146) May 25, 2010 [Productivity](https://johnpoelstra.com/category/productivity/) [attention](https://johnpoelstra.com/tag/attention/) , [config](https://johnpoelstra.com/tag/config/) , [interruptions](https://johnpoelstra.com/tag/interruptions/) , [merlin mann](https://johnpoelstra.com/tag/merlin-mann/) , [minimizing](https://johnpoelstra.com/tag/minimizing/) , [question list](https://johnpoelstra.com/tag/question-list/) , [respect](https://johnpoelstra.com/tag/respect/) , [snippet](https://johnpoelstra.com/tag/snippet/) , [time](https://johnpoelstra.com/tag/time/) [Previous post](https://johnpoelstra.com/time-and-attention/) [Next post](https://johnpoelstra.com/stop-firefox-from-stealing-focus/) ### Leave a Reply [Cancel reply](/respecting-time-and-attention/#respond) ### John Poelstra [https://johnpoelstra.com/?attachment_id=3756](https://johnpoelstra.com/?attachment_id=3756) ### Work With Me I coach directors in finance and software who want to prioritize, delegate, and lead with clarity. 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