Originally posted by Jo Davies on June 1, 2018
For me, when I think of mobile culture I think of the rise of productivity apps … apps to help us increase efficiency at work and at home (to do list apps, project management apps, calendars, timers – the list goes on). When I googled “productivity apps” I got over 331 million results back, with countless review sites to show me how easy it is making more money, saving more time and living a more efficient life. It is becoming more and more culturally acceptable to maximize our time and efforts using mobile technology to help us. Gone are the days when we could feel no guilt about sitting on the train or bus on our daily commute and read a book or even the daily news. Now, our phones are pinging with emails, texts, alarms all reminding us of the million things we have to do and how productive we should be at any given moment.
I’m not against being productive! And certainly not against technology to make work/study more efficient. To that end, an interesting app worthy of mention here, which can be used in the workplace or in the arena of group projects within education and study, is Trello. Although marketed primarily as a project management system for the work place, it is a collaborative app that uses the concept of boards (each board corresponds to a project) and within the boards, cards which represent tasks. Trello is more than a To Do list app and makes managing projects easier and succinct through enabling all members to discuss a project or task in real-time and keeping them informed throughout the project. Trello has fully functioning mobile apps for iPhone/iPad, Android, watches and tablets and also a desktop version.
To counteract this cultural drive for productivity I am heartened that technology is offering us more and more mobile opportunities to slow down with the rise of mindfulness and meditation apps!
This one resonated with me personally as I have spent significant time focusing on finding better ways to organize, problem solve and be productive. Interestingly, one of the more productive things I have done recently is to intentionally disengage by disabling gmail and many other notifications, generally staying off of social media (that’s not new I suppose!) and finding times when I “turn the phone face down”. A recognition of the value of focus, and the challenge of switching contexts all the time (news, then chatting with a friend, then researching for a course, then back to the news, oh it’s raining tomorrow!) as well as how inefficient it becomes is an important part of improving your actual productivity, and also your wellbeing. Interestingly, I believe that one related aspect of mobile culture is the importance of being discriminating in what we spend time focusing on.