Don’t Waste Your Time: Use of Time Information Improves Focus PDF Free Download
Maintaining work focus when on a computer is a major challenge, and people often feel that they use their time ineffectively. To improve focus we designed meTime, a real-time awareness application that shows users how they allocate their time across applications.
In two real-world deployments involving 118 participants, we examined whether greater awareness of time use improves focus. In our first deployment, we provided awareness information using meTime, to both office workers and students.
Exposure to meTime reduced the use of social media, email, browsing, and total time online. However, increased awareness didn’t affect the time spent on productivity applications. A second educational deployment largely replicated these results and showed that meTime also reduced users’ perceptions of their ability to focus effectively.
Changed perceptions were associated with higher class grades. We discuss practical and theoretical implications as well as design principles for use of time applications.
John Piper: Don’t Waste Your Life
Many people, even Christians, go through their lives devoted to trivial things, living for comfort and pleasure. There is no passion for God. In this lecture, Dr. John Piper exhorts all of us to not waste our lives on such trivial pursuits. Only a life passionately devoted to the cross of Christ and the glory of God will be considered a life not squandered on the last day.
