Attention - When, not What?

In blogsphere, here, here, here this week there has been quite a bit of traffic on the "attention" issue and the overwhelming number of blogs. Lord knows it is tough to make time for blogs...but...

...fellow bloggers - would you trade for a corporate job where instead of blogs you have endless meetings and a torrent of email and voice mails? I recently read advice from a meeting consultant who has organized thousands of corporate meetings over his career -  "if you are jerked awake in the middle of a meeting, never say "what?", say "when?""

Many of my corporate clients routinely bitch about being cc'ed on group email and mass voice mail lists and being scheduled for meetings just because more people have electronic visibility to their calendars. They go from meeting to meeting, then come back and delete email after email, voice mail after voice mail.

Last month I sent this BusinessWeek link to a number of my corporate clients about "the real reasons you're working so hard..." and it cites:

"Forty percent of American adults get less than seven hours of sleep on weekdays, reports the National Sleep Foundation, up from 31% in 2001. About 60% of us are sometimes or often rushed at mealtime, and one-third wolf down lunch at our desks, according to a survey by the American Dietetic Assn. To avoid wasting time, we're talking on our cell phones while rushing to work, answering e-mails during conference calls, waking up at 4 a.m. to call Europe, and generally multitasking our brains out."

At least with blogging we control what we write and what we choose to filter...even though it takes time and attention, not sure I would trade it for the corporate option. I have been blogging only for a few months and I learn so much each day from blogs. And gratified that I entertain or challenge visitors from around the world - last week my stats showed hits from 50 countries.

So please, make time and keep writing and reading blogs.  And when something I write jerks you awake, please say "when?", not  "what?"