How often do you find yourself quietly on your own in this noisy world? Even when you’re at work, out of the 7 to 8 hours, how many of them are your own quiet hours?
A study at the University of California, Irvine, found that a typical office worker’s focused quiet time is only 11 minutes in-between interruptions on average,[1] and it actually takes 25 minutes to resume to work after any interruptions.
The noise and interruptions are badly affecting our work efficiency, and in fact, our life too.
The article discusses the workplace, but some of what happens in the workplace can also pertain to the classroom. I absolutely despise interruptions, and as such, will only interrupt another class if the teacher has submitted a help desk or if their door is open. If the door is closed, I’m going to assume they don’t want to be interrupted.
If you’ve been reading much of the news about the recent Equifax data breach, you may have seen someone asking whether the Chief Information Security Officer is actually qualified for her job, based on her undergrad degree being in music. As others have pointed out, what her undergrad studies were probably didn’t have much to…
When I think of my role as a teacher, I consider my dual roles: a high-school science teacher and an instructor who prepares new teachers to teach science. These roles are very different, and each offers its own set of rewards and challenges. At the same time, I approach each with the same two mindsets:…
During a professional development session a while back I thought I killed someone. He didn’t respond when his name was called. He didn’t respond I tapped his shoulder. Finally, he responded when I shook him a bit harder. Lucky for me (and him) he was just asleep. But it was a wake up call to…
Over a period of two years, skateboarder Christian Flores fell down thousands of times, broke boards, went to the hospital twice, and cracked a rib trying to do a laser flip down a triple set of stairs. Source: Landing the hardest trick after 2 years of trying A great example to show students on how to…
There’s no shortage of “nature soundtracks,” but how many of them are the actual sounds from a US National Park? To celebrate its 102nd birthday, the National Park Service is offering ParkTracks, a 12-minute mix of sounds from across various national parks. The sounds were captured by the NPS’s (wonderfully named) Natural Sounds and Night Skies Division,…
According to research from Office Team, 63% of senior managers said their company is “very supportive of their staff’s efforts to achieve work-life balance.” However, only 34% of employees agreed with this statement. This is a significant change from a similar work-life survey conducted 10 years ago in which 45% of senior managers characterized their…
