{"id":657,"date":"2020-03-26T09:30:11","date_gmt":"2020-03-26T16:30:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/digitalfacilitation.net\/?p=657"},"modified":"2020-03-26T09:30:15","modified_gmt":"2020-03-26T16:30:15","slug":"habit-tracker-get-those-new-tech-tools-under-control","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/digitalfacilitation.net\/?p=657","title":{"rendered":"Habit Tracker: Get those new tech tools under control"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

As you\u2019re ramping up with working, teaching, facilitating, and meeting online, you\u2019re probably encountering new tools that you haven\u2019t used before. (At least, I hope you are; there are a lot of useful tools out there to support whatever kind of work you need to do.) I\u2019m sure it feels like a trackless jungle most of the time. Don\u2019t worry. That\u2019s not because you\u2019re bad at technology. It\u2019s because you\u2019re a normal human.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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That’s a lot of options. Photo by\u00a0Bal\u00e1zs K\u00e9tyi<\/a>\u00a0on\u00a0Unsplash<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Have you ever had to\nchange email clients? If so, you probably remember feeling very disoriented at\nfirst. Maybe you missed some important emails, sent the wrong attachments to\npeople, or accidentally copied people you didn\u2019t mean to include. It may have\nfelt like you were learning how to use email all over again. And in a sense,\nyou were.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Through use, you\nbuilt up a lot of unconscious knowledge about how your old email client\ndisplayed information and where the controls were. All that unconscious\nknowledge gave you the power to gain understanding at a glance. You could\ninstantly tell whether you had unread messages or whether you\u2019d responded to\nsomething, because you knew how to read the signals. Until you get comfortable\nwith those signals in your new email client, you are likely to feel\nwrong-footed.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In interface design,\nthose signals are called affordances. One example that\u2019s pretty universal for\nemail clients is that an unread message appears in bold in the message list.\nOnce it\u2019s read, it\u2019s no longer bold. This affordance is so effective that\nalmost all email clients take advantage of it, which is why that part of your\nnew email system probably didn\u2019t feel weird.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Understanding the\naffordances is how you know what to pay attention to in order to get the\ninformation you need. But until you understand them, you have to pay attention\nto everything all the time, because you don\u2019t reflexively know which\naffordances give you which information. It\u2019s exhausting, it\u2019s frustrating, and\nit leads to mistakes. Not just with email clients, but with any tool you\u2019re\nlearning how to use.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Until you learn a\ntool\u2019s affordances, it will feel clunky and awkward. It takes about two weeks\nof daily use before those affordances are internalized, which means It takes\nabout two weeks of daily use with a new tool before you become comfortable with\nit. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019ll say that again.\nIt takes about two weeks of daily use to become comfortable using a new\ntechnology tool, no matter what it is or what it\u2019s for.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s no shortcut to this. You can watch tutorial videos\n(and I recommend that you do), you can have someone show you the basics (also a\ngood idea), but only daily use will fix those affordances in your mind so that\nyou can understand the interface at a glance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Therefore, I offer this printable habit tracker<\/a>. Print it out, write in the names of the tools you\u2019re trying to get comfortable with, then fill in the bubble for every day you use the tool for at least 10 minutes. I like to pick a different colored pencil for each tool, but that\u2019s just me. You do you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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And because we\u2019re all swimming in uncharted waters right now\nas we self-isolate to flatten the curve and prevent the spread of covid-19,\nthere\u2019s also a section for lifestyle changes you want to remember to make. Some\nsuggestions for what you might write in there:<\/p>\n\n\n\n