I sort of read this one while I was working on a document and patching/rebooting a few servers, and talking on the phone. So I think I understand the point, sort of. Anyway, the article doesn’t say much beyond that “continuous partial attention” is sort of dangerous, and sort of rude, but also can be a good thing.

I can’t stand IM and the annoyances it brings, so I have never been an active user. I am guilty of continously checking two email accounts (work and home), and checking my feeds on Bloglines however, all while doing whatever it is I’m doing at work. I have recently been trying to remember to close the Bloglines tab, at least, once I chew through the morning’s feed glut. I find that helps somewhat with my attention deficit, but only for a little while. Just don’t ask me how many things I am trying to do while also writing something for the blog…