Science and Society

Just as nerve wracking is being a health professional who is trusted to give the best advice. Who has the best and most reliable information? How fast does it get out to the public? And how do you convince them to do what you say when they basically rely on what they heard somewhere else, they just can't remember where?

A further point to make here is that we are slaves to our e-mail. Those of us who work in cubes all day with silence and managers who steadily fling e-mails our way for new assignments, tasks, duties, etc.

In the interest of deleting the term frazzing in our work life, repeat after me, "I promise to look at my e-mail twice per day."

I think the last comment is full of wisdom. Many's the time I will look at an email at 4:30 that asks for some immediate action at noon of that day. I have long stopped feeling guilty. Check morning, check afternoon. Now, I just have to convince myself that it's okay to turn off the darn cell phone!

Great report on a problem I didn't realize had a name until now. My solution to the problem is to admit that I simply cannot multitask well--if I do three things at once, two of those will be done badly--and that the electronic devices I use are my tools, not my masters. I check e-mails twice or three times a day, I turn off my cell phone when I'm at the office, and I disposed of my pager. I'll still give priority to anyone who sees me at the office in my cubicle, but I try to limit the interruptions. I find that this works for me, and I don't feel as frazzled as I did.

I am a health professional, a pediatrician, and it's not easy for me, with advanced education, to interpret complicated papers in journals. More often than not, I rely on the academic organizations (children's hospital specialists, etc) to do so and give their recommendations. But I am also a former newspaper reporter with an advanced journalism degree (MSJ, Northwestern) and some science reporting background and I know firsthand how hard it is for science reporters to interpret studies, disease processes, etc and doubly hard to translate the tecnhical stuff into something the typical reader or viewer can digest.

The best advice I've seen recently is to NOT read your email first thing when you hit your desk. I finally changed my system so that the tasks for the day show up first. It is often a good jolt to the memory that I scheduled something early in the morning that is usually not my habit. Then I can go to reviewing status on certain tasks and when the plan for the day is made, the priorities established, I will read my mail. If you know the pattern of postings from different departments the important stuff will come out after the others have hit their desk. So, balance and peace are achievable if you manage yourself first - then manage business.

We are killing the rainforest

Vulgar language during primetime TV is, is not okay

Power to the people is, is not a good idea

I'm very interested to know which came first: the chicken or the egg in relatinship to "frazzing" and "AADD". There's been such an incease in adult ADD diagnosis's that a strong possibility exists for a correlation. Perhaps humans are ill-equipped for the demands of certain types of multi-tasking? Perhaps frazzing exacerbates already existing mild ADD? Not diagnosed as a child (but with symptoms) and diagnosed and way frazzy as an adult, I wonder...