[January 21st] Tabs: How many windows/tabs do you have open right now? How does this impact your attention?
I have 14 windows opened, 8 of which are grouped together to give the appearance of only 7 windows sitting in my task bar. In my two FireFox windows, I have 10 and 5 tabs opened respectively. Now here’s the method to my madness:
I have two windows opened for Windows Live Messenger. This is how I sporadically communicate with my husband while I’m at work, and every so often he treats me to a webcam viewing of the baby. I have a window for the storage drive open for easy access to hundreds of files. My 8 Excel files are for easy access to key files — as in keys that we give out for the rooms — and seminar attendance sheets dating back to two semesters ago. We have people complaining about “I” or “U” grades from time to time, so it’s helpful. Then I have my Outlook mailbox, which should be very self-explanatory. One FireFox window has 5 high-use tabs: the resource calendar, the UF MSE website, the resource scheduler, the current seminar line up, and FedEx. That window stays on my second monitor and usually doesn’t have anything else opened there. (I will sometimes put the babycam or other files on the second scene if I need to.) In my “goof-off” window, I have both Weather.com and Accuweather.com, my.ufl.edu (this is basically where we go to clock in and out, view paychecks, etc.), and whatever else I may happen to be looking at. This is my method.
How do all these windows and tabs affect my attention? Well, my attention is very random, in all honesty. My mind runs at 100mph most of the day, so this method works for me. Got a question for google? Pull up the FireFox “goof-off” window. Need to ship a package scroll over to the second monitor and prepare the shipment. Have a new student at your desk looking for keys? Pull up the key list. Need to find a file for the chairman? Open the storage driver folder and hunt that puppy down. I’m sure I’ve made my point. Throughout my day, I’m continually interrupted for a variety of reasons, so I can’t really devote my attention too much to one particular task. I may get a little cranky if I’ve got creativity flowing on a project, but I usually get over it quickly — because I usually get to go back to whatever I was doing within a few minutes. I don’t get cranky when it’s something goofy, though, because I know my insatiable desire to learn more about, say, psychological issues or the cute little opossum that traverses our breezeway isn’t why I’m sitting here at my desk.
