I’m late posting this blog. Not a big deal considering I’m the blogger-in-chief. I can make my own timeline, right?  Well, I’m type A, so there goes that theory. But hang on, I can get this piece written…right after I finish this conference call and help my colleague burn out that fire. And review that demo reel. Oh, and make that 2 p.m. deadline.

Personality types and working styles aside, this constant distraction is quickly becoming detrimental to effectively doing our jobs, and doing them well. I recently read exerpts from Now You See It, by Cathy Davidson. Davidson is a professor at Duke University, a dyslexic, and a self-proclaimed geek. In a recent interview with Anya Kamenetz at Fast Company, Mrs. Davidson states that fifteen years into the commercialization of the Internet, with people coming of age who don’t remember anything different, and argues that we’re at the perfect moment to begin reimagining our institutions and developing practices to deal with the onslaught of information, the reality of constant connectedness, and the challenges of global collaboration. She believes in celebrating “collaboration by difference” — every team needs some people to count the passes and others to spot the gorilla. Manage our relationship with technology by scheduling offline “planned interruptions.” And be mindful of which conversations need to take place in person or over the phone versus on email or text.

A few tips from Ms. Davidson that I try (hard) to follow:

• Plan offline interruptions into your day, whether a walk at lunch or a face-to-face meeting. Within your workplace, colleagues should have the ability to “hole up” solo or together on a project, free from constant connection to the rest of the world.
• A tip from designer Aza Raskin: Try reserving separate screens, or even separate devices, for Facebook, Twitter, and other distractors. If they’re in separate rooms, even better.
• Get into the habit of tagging complex matters to be discussed later, in real time. Davidson sends her colleagues emails with the subject line “Agenda”; at their weekly conference call, she’ll search her email for the term and — presto! — a list of items to discuss pops up.
• If chronically distracted, look below the surface. “We complain about email interference,” she says, “but the two most distracting things in any human life are emotional upset and physical discomfort — heartache and heartburn.”

In Bob’s post a few weeks ago, “Is it possible we’re too connected?” he talked about information overload, which inevitably leads to distraction. “We’ve taught each other that responses can’t wait and that we have to constantly be interrupting whatever else we’re doing to answer these persistent pokes. This constant stop-start mode isn’t conducive to optimal thinking. It’s been estimated that it takes the mind 10 to 20 times as long to recover and refocus after an interruption than the length of the interruption itself. The inevitable result? Scattered, disjointed thinking—not what’s needed to do mental deep dives, solve problems, or create.”

Here, here, Bob! Sure, the Internet, mobile technology and social media have contributed to constant disruption at work, but when did it become okay to think our mental capacity could handle it all while still maintaining focus for the job or task at hand?

At the end of the day, the expectations aren’t changing so we must adjust. Or follow Ms. Davidson’s advice. Or…go insane.