#smartereveryday
@nokiaatwork

2 Introduction
4 Digital literacy
6 Elements of mastery
8 Mindful
10 Flow
12 Understanding how your mind works
13 Metacognition
16 Attention and hyper-attention
18 Is the internet changing how our minds work?
20 How to be more mindful
24 Purposeful
25 The right tool for the job
26 Effortless, not comfortable
28 The process is the purpose
30 Stacks and flows
32 Connection fatigue and internet addiction
34 How to be purposeful
36 Playful
38 The benefits of being playful
42 The Slow Web
44 How to be playful
45 Critical thinking
46 Masterful tools
51 Conclusion: becoming masterful
52 Reading list
Contents.

IntroductionMobile Mastery
1
Cathy N Davidson, Now You See It: How The Brain
Science Of Attention Will Transform The Way We Live,
Work and Learn
Mobile - being connected everywhere
to everything and everyone - is
the fact of modern life. It defines
how we live, how we work, how we
communicate and how the world
runs. It is the tool we reach for first
when we are faced with challenges
big and small in our everyday lives.
In a very short period of time, it
has gone from being the stuff of
science fiction to something we
all have in our pockets. Many of
us have adopted it so quickly and
wholeheartedly that we find it hard to
remember what life was like before.
But despite the rapid pace with which
we’ve adopted it, we’re still learning
the best and most effective ways
to use mobile technology, how to
make the most of the opportunities
and how to avoid the pitfalls.
In Now You See It, her widely
respected work on the impact
of technology and neuroscience
on education and business,
Cathy Davidson writes:
“Right now, we’re in a transitional
moment. We are both adopting
new information technologies all
the time and being alarmed by them,
even wondering if they are causing
us harm, exceeding our human
capacities…Basically, the internet is
still in its adolescence and so are
we as users. We’ve grown up
fast, but we still have much
to learn. There’s a lot of room
for improvement. We are
experiencing growing pains.
Because we learn to pay attention
differently depending on the world
we see, when the world changes,
there is a lot we’re suddenly seeing
for the first time and even more we
suspect we’re missing. So that’s a
key question: How can we focus on
what we do best without missing
new opportunities to do better?1
”
Introduction.
Do you have mastery over your mobile devices, or does it feel more like
they have mastery over you? Who jumps fastest when the other calls?
You or your device?
2

IntroductionMobile Mastery
In our last book in this series -
Design Your Day - we offered ideas
for structuring your day to get the
best use of your time and energy.
With Mobile Mastery we’ll explore:
• The elements of mobile mastery.
• How to avoid the pitfalls of
mobile technology.
• How to make the most of
and spot new opportunities
offered by mobile technology.
Introduction3
The answer to Davidson’s question could
be what we are calling mobile mastery.
To achieve great things in any field,
we expect to have mastery over the
tools of that trade, to grow our skills
and knowledge of how to use them.
When we see a master at work we are
awed by the economy and confidence
of their actions - their effortlessness
speaks of huge effort in the past to
hone those skills. Now, however, their
effort is focused on outcome, on
perfect execution of the task in hand.
If you were writing a plan, somewhere
between the context and the tactics
would be a strategy: a direction, a way
of proceeding, accompanied by some
goals and measures that will show
whether the plan is succeeding or not.
We want this book to be a guide to
writing your own personal strategy
for mobile, your own route to mastery
of mobile hyper-connected living
and working, starting with theory
and moving on to the practice.

Why design your day?
Right now, there isn’t any best
practice. The old rules and structures
of working life have been overturned
by technology. Working tools are
no longer tied to a particular place.
Pervasive connections, cloud storage
and flexible devices mean that we are
no longer dependent on a particular
locale to have access to the people,
information and tools we need to do
our jobs. Our phones allow us to tap
into our documents, our colleagues,
clients and suppliers wherever we are
in the world. For many, our devices are
our new offices, ones we can throw in
a bag and take with us wherever we go.
Even place-based concepts like
“home working” or “mobile working”
don’t really capture the shift that’s
going on. Place is no longer a vital
component of information work. If
we work anywhere, we work in the
flow: the flow of information, people
and communication. Flow also
describes the way that many aspire
to work - fluidly, adapting to changing
circumstances, but still with a
focused direction. It is fundamentally
different to the industrial-era
approach that has defined so much
working theory until recently.
Shifts like this cause dissonance,
tension and confusion. Many people
take comfort in familiar, traditional
structures, because they are tried
and tested. They minimise risk. Other
people are naturally risk-averse, and
for them, this is an uncomfortable
time. The old structures of work are
breaking down, and new ones will take
time to develop. People cling to the
old certainties even as they become
inefficient and damaging. Working
in the old office paradigm, tied to
a desk and a standard daily routine
leaves employees less efficient, less
passionate and, in aggregate, that
leaves companies less competitive.
Many people take comfort in
familiar, traditional structures,
because they are tried and tested.
They minimise risk. Other people
are naturally risk-averse, and
for them, this is an uncomfortable
time. The old structures of work
are breaking down, and new ones
will take time to develop. People
cling to the old certainties even
While many of us associate it with Buddhism and spirituality, mindfulness is
also frequently used therapeutically by psychologists. Dr Jon Kabbat-Zinn, who
helped to introduce the concept of mindfulness to the western world in the
1970s, describes it as:Digital literacy is the ability to find,
summarise, evaluate and create
information using digital technology,
and it is becoming as vital as
literacy itself in our digital age.
It is growing as a subject: many
governments around the world are
investing in developing digital literacy
in their citizens, and a number of
places of education, including the UK’s
Open University, offer courses in it.
Howard Rheingold, a critic, writer,
teacher and leading authority on
modern communication, argues in
his book Net Smart that the future of
digital culture depends on how well we
learn to use digital media now.
He writes:
“For individuals, the issue of where
digital culture may be heading is
personal as well as philosophical:
knowing how to make use of online
tools without being overloaded
with too much information is, like
it or not, an essential ingredient to
personal success in the twenty-first
century. Just as learning to drive an
automobile (or at least learning how
to survive as a pedestrian) was crucial
for citizens of the early twentieth
century, learning how to deploy
attention in relation to available
media is key today for success in
education, business, and social life.
Similarly, those who understand the
fundamentals of digital participation,
online collaboration, informational
credibility testing, and network
awareness will be able to exert
more control over their own fates
than those who lack this lore.”2
Digital literacy.
2
Howard Rheingold,
Net Smart: How To Thrive Online.

Why design your day?
While many of us associate it with Buddhism and spirituality, mindfulness is
also frequently used therapeutically by psychologists. Dr Jon Kabbat-Zinn, who
helped to introduce the concept of mindfulness to the western world in the
1970s, describes it as:Rheingold identifies five key
literacies for the internet age:
1. Attention
The ability to stay focused (and
focus on the right thing) and not let
our devices dictate what we pay
attention to.
2. Crap detection
Critical thinking and knowing how
to spot and filter out poor quality
information when you’re reading and
researching online.
3. Participation
Taking part in the community the
internet gives you access to, in a
way that benefits you and the rest of
that community.
4. Collaboration
Participating in and adding value
to virtual communities, collective
intelligence and knowledge networks.
5. Network smarts
Understanding how social
networks work, and how you can
use them in a beneficial way.3
Mobile mastery could be seen as a
kind of advanced digital literacy for
the digital natives and long-settled
digital immigrants4
among us, to use
the terminology of Marc Prensky, a
leading author on education and
learning. It goes beyond just learning
how to use these tools, into thinking
deeply about how they can best
be used in your life and work.
3
Howard Rheingold,
Net Smart: How To Thrive Online.
4
Marc Prensky,
Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants,
http://nokia.ly/15rZSuj

Mobile Mastery 6 Introduction.
Elements of mastery.
We have identified three key
traits that are the hallmarks
of mobile mastery:
1. Mindful
Gaining self-awareness, coming to
better understand how your mind
works and using this knowledge
to enhance your performance
and avoid behaviours that
decrease your efficiency.
2. Purposeful
Focusing on the desired outcome
of whatever you’re doing and
making sure you bring the right
tools to bear to achieve it. It also
means approaching technology
with a specific task in mind.
3. Playful
Exploring the possibilities of
existing tools, apps and devices,
and experimenting with new ones.
Playfulness balances mindfulness
and purposefulness with a light-
hearted approach to learning.
Making the choice to develop
each of these three elements of
mastery in your use of technology
will allow you to get more from
the digital world, as well as from
your life and work in general.
We will examine each of the three
elements of mastery in detail in the
following chapters, giving you an
overall picture of how you can make
your use of technology masterful.
As part of the Smarter Everyday programme we have been looking at
thinking from leading experts on how to be more effective in our everyday
lives. (See our Designing Your Day ebook for more - http://nokia.ly/DYDebook)

Purposeful
MINDFULPlayful
Mastery

Mindful.
If you want to make your use of mobile technology
masterful, mindfulness is a good place to start.

“Paying attention in a particular way:
on purpose, in the present moment,
and nonjudgmentally.”5
In this context, mindfulness is an
open state in which you actively pay
attention and observe what you’re
doing there and then and how it’s
making you feel. It’s a valuable state
to be in when you’re working,
because it’s related to ‘flow’ - the
state of focus, motivation and
immersion that you might think of
as being ‘in the zone’.
Flow is threatened on a daily basis
by mobile technology and 24-7
connectivity. The phone or tablet
in your hand gives you endless
possibilities for distraction; rather
than simply being in the present
moment, your device tempts you
with obvious distractions like social
networks, YouTube, or websites that
lead you link after link down the rabbit
hole, and more insidious distractions,
like the compulsion to check your
email repeatedly throughout the day.
However, distraction is not the only
threat you need to defend yourself
against; stress is another consequence
of a lack of mindfulness, and a major
roadblock to achieving mastery.
Dividing your attention or
procrastinating can leave you feeling
anxious; each new email, notification,
phone call, is another thing to do,
keeping you from focusing on the
most important tasks.
Some talk of people ‘transmitting’ their
feelings - stress spreads, happiness
is infectious. If you are unaware of
how you are feeling you are probably
oblivious to how you are making the
rest of your team feel as well.
Being more mindful of your mental
state in general, of what mental state
the work you need to do requires, and
how technology can support or hinder
this will have a marked impact on your
productivity and your levels of stress.
In this section, we’ll explore:
• The principles behind how your
mind works.
• Your different working modes (and
how to use them).
• How to achieve mindfulness.
5
Jon Kabat-Zinn,
Wherever You Go, There You Are: Mindfulness
Meditation for Everyday life.
While many of us associate it with Buddhism and spirituality, mindfulness is
also frequently used therapeutically by psychologists. Dr Jon Kabbat-Zinn,
who helped to introduce the concept of mindfulness to the western world in
the 1970s, describes it as:
9Mobile Mastery Mindful

Why design your day?
Right now, there isn’t any best
practice. The old rules and structures
of working life have been overturned
by technology. Working tools are
no longer tied to a particular place.
Pervasive connections, cloud storage
and flexible devices mean that we are
no longer dependent on a particular
locale to have access to the people,
information and tools we need to do
our jobs. Our phones allow us to tap
into our documents, our colleagues,
clients and suppliers wherever we are
in the world. For many, our devices are
our new offices, ones we can throw in
a bag and take with us wherever we go.
Even place-based concepts like
“home working” or “mobile working”
don’t really capture the shift that’s
going on. Place is no longer a vital
component of information work. If
we work anywhere, we work in the
flow: the flow of information, people
and communication. Flow also
describes the way that many aspire
to work - fluidly, adapting to changing
circumstances, but still with a
focused direction. It is fundamentally
different to the industrial-era
approach that has defined so much
working theory until recently.
Shifts like this cause dissonance,
tension and confusion. Many people
take comfort in familiar, traditional
structures, because they are tried
and tested. They minimise risk. Other
people are naturally risk-averse, and
for them, this is an uncomfortable
time. The old structures of work are
breaking down, and new ones will take
time to develop. People cling to the
old certainties even as they become
inefficient and damaging. Working
in the old office paradigm, tied to
a desk and a standard daily routine
leaves employees less efficient, less
passionate and, in aggregate, that
leaves companies less competitive.
Many people take comfort in
familiar, traditional structures,
because they are tried and tested.
They minimise risk. Other people
are naturally risk-averse, and
for them, this is an uncomfortable
time. The old structures of work
are breaking down, and new ones
will take time to develop. People
cling to the old certainties even
While many of us associate it with Buddhism and spirituality, mindfulness is
also frequently used therapeutically by psychologists. Dr Jon Kabbat-Zinn, who
helped to introduce the concept of mindfulness to the western world in the
1970s, describes it as:Flow is the mental state where you are
fully immersed in your work, feeling
energised, focused and completely
engaged in what you’re doing.
Flow and mindfulness have a lot in
common: mindfulness is about ‘being
in the moment’ which is a similar
state to the immersion of flow.
For many of us, reaching flow is the
primary goal in our working day,
because it’s when we get our best
work done, and leaves us with a sense
of satisfaction and achievement
that motivates us to push further on
and exceed our own expectations.
Unfortunately, flow can easily be
interrupted by apathy, boredom,
anxiety, and of course, those
ever-looming distractions.
Taking steps to be more mindful and
reduce distractions can help increase
the likelihood of reaching flow and
staying there. Mihály Csíkszentmihályi
and Jeanne Nakamura, key figures in
flow theory, suggest that you need
three things to achieve a flow state:
1. Clarity
A clear idea of the goals, structure
and direction of your task.
2. Feedback
Easily-understood and immediate
feedback so you can negotiate any
changing demands and adjust your
performance to maintain the flow state.
3. Balance
A balance between the challenges
of the task and your skills; you
need to feel confident that you
are capable of the task at hand.6
Throughout the rest of this chapter
we’ll explore how mindfulness
can help you reach and maintain
a flow state. We’ll be talking
more about how flow works in a
team context in the next book in
this series, Teams That Flow .
Flow.
6
Mihály Csíkszentmihályi and Jeanne Nakamura,
‘Flow’, Handbook of Competence and Motivation

Why design your day?
While many of us associate it with Buddhism and spirituality, mindfulness is
also frequently used therapeutically by psychologists. Dr Jon Kabbat-Zinn, who
helped to introduce the concept of mindfulness to the western world in the
1970s, describes it as:

12
Understanding how your
mind works.
Mindful
Being mindful is about paying
attention to what you’re
doing in the present moment,
and understanding it.
If you’re a knowledge worker aiming
for mindfulness in your work, this
means examining and appraising
your thought processes, so
understanding more about how
your mind works can be a useful
stepping stone to getting there.
When you know more about
the underlying psychology and
neuroscience, you will find it easier to
observe your behaviour, and also to
know whether you are using the right
tool from your mental ‘toolkit’ or not.
(We’ll discuss this point further in the
‘Purposeful’ section of this book.)
Mobile Mastery

13Mobile Mastery Mindful
Literally, metacognition means ‘thinking about thinking’. It exhibits itself as
having an understanding of and control over your mental approach. Examples
of metacognition might be planning how you will approach a task or evaluating
your progress towards completing it.
Metacognition is closely related to mindfulness, but it’s not quite the same
thing. While mindfulness is a state of being, or an awareness, metacognition is
better thought of as a set of tools for making changes to your own thinking.
Two key areas of metacognition are knowledge/awareness and regulation:
Metacognition.
1. Metacognitive knowledge/
awareness
What you know about how you
think and how others think. There
are three different types of
metacognitive awareness:
• Declarative knowledge
Knowing about yourself, how you work
and learn, and about the things that
have an impact on your performance.
• Procedural knowledge
Knowing about doing things and
having the ability to choose the
right strategies and processes.
• Conditional knowledge
Knowing when and why to deploy your
declarative and procedural knowledge.7
2. Metacognitive regulation
Your ability to regulate your
cognitive processes. It relates
to four skills in particular:
• Planning
Choosing the right cognitive
strategies and allocating the right
mental resources to a task.
• Monitoring
Being aware of your performance.
• Evaluating
Appraising the quality of the
outcome of your task and the
efficiency with which you performed it.
• Resisting distraction
Being aware of and able to
ignore distractions.8
7
JH Flavell,
“Metacognition and cognitive monitoring.
A new area of cognitive-development inquiry”.
American Psychologist, 34.
8
Gregory Schraw,
“Promoting general metacognitive awareness”.
Instructional Science, 26.

In a paper for cognitive research
group the Development Testing
Service, Dr. Theo L.Dawson
writes that:
“Adults whose metacognitive skills are
well developed are better problem-
solvers, decision makers and critical
thinkers, are more able and more
motivated to learn, and are more likely
to be able to regulate their emotions
(even in difficult situations), handle
complexity, and cope with conflict.
“Although metacognitive skills,
once they are well-learned, can
become habits of mind that
are applied in a wide variety of
contexts, it is important for even
the most advanced adult learners
to “flex their cognitive muscles” by
consciously applying appropriate
metacognitive skills to new
knowledge and in new situations.” 9
So then, not only are metacognitive
skills vital for knowledge workers,
they are also something that you
can grow and develop. It is in
developing your metacognitive skills
that mindfulness can be helpful.
Mindfulness helps to create a
receptive state of mind for learning
and new experiences, and can also
increase the likelihood that you
will select the right metacognitive
skills for the task at hand.10
Metacognition is in itself a kind
of mastery - mastery over your
own mind and skills. Technology
is increasingly becoming an
extension of our brains, so it makes
sense to extend metacognition
to your use of mobile tech.
14Mobile Mastery Mindful
9
Dr. Theo L. Dawson,
‘Metacogniton and learning in adulthood’,
LECTICA, http://nokia.ly/12NCkSd
10
EL Garland,
‘The meaning of mindfulness: A second-order
cybernetics of stress, metacognition, and coping’,
Complementary Health Practice Review.

15Mobile Mastery Mindful
• Identify ‘what you know’ and
‘what you don’t know’
At the beginning of any research
activity make conscious decisions
about knowledge.’
As you research the topic, verify,
clarify and expand, or replace
each initial statement with more
accurate information.
• Talk about thinking
During planning and problem-solving
situations, think aloud. Labelling
thinking processes is important for
recognition of thinking skills.
• Keep a thinking journal
Another means of developing
metacognition is through the use
of a journal or learning log. This
is a diary in which to reflect upon
thinking, make note of awareness of
ambiguities and inconsistencies,
and comment on how you have dealt
with difficulties. This journal is a diary
of process.
• Plan and self-regulate
Make plans for learning activities
including estimating time
requirements, organising materials,
and scheduling procedures necessary
to complete an activity.
• Debrief the thinking process
A three-step method is useful.
First, review the activity, gathering
data on thinking processes and
feelings. Then, classify related ideas,
identifying thinking strategies used.
Finally, evaluate success, discarding
inappropriate strategies, identifying
those valuable for future use, and
seeking promising alternative approaches.
• Self-evaluation
Guided self-evaluation experiences
through checklists focusing
on thinking processes.11
Elaine Blakey and Sheila Spence of the Educational Resource Information Centre
suggest the following strategies for developing your metacognitive skills:
11
Elaine Blakey, Sheila Spence,
‘Developing Metacognition’,
Education.com, http://nokia.ly/12NCpVO

16Mobile Mastery
The impact of mobile technology is felt nowhere more than on our attention.
The online world can seem like an “ecosystem of interruption technologies,”12
particularly when you’re trying to get something done.
Attention and
hyper-attention.
Hyper-attention is defined by
N Katherine Hayles, a literary
critic whose work looks at the
relationship between literature,
science and technology, as:
“switching focus rapidly between
different tasks, preferring multiple
information streams, seeking a high
level of stimulation, and having a
low tolerance for boredom.”13
It is the opposite to deep attention:
“concentrating on a single object
for long periods (say, a novel by
Dickens), ignoring outside stimuli
while so engaged, preferring a single
information stream, and having a high
tolerance for long focus times.”14
Hayles suggests hyper-attention
would have emerged in humans
before deep attention, because being
alert and sensitive to threats would
have been an evolutionary advantage.
It still has its applications, in some
work in particular, for example
teaching or air traffic control, where
you need to be alert and responsive
to what’s going on around you.
Many of us inadvertently create a
state of hyper-attention when we sit
at our desks - with email and social
networks open alongside whatever
we’re working on, we’re creating a
high level of stimulation and input,
when perhaps what we need is deep
attention, which is better suited
to solving the complex problems
many of us deal with at work.
This isn’t just theory - researchers
at the University of California, Irving
conducted a workplace study in
which some subjects were cut off
from email for five days, while their
colleagues remained connected. The
subjects wore heart rate monitors
and also had software sensors
connected to their computers.
Mindful
12
Cory Doctorow 13, 14
N Katherine Hayles,
Hyper and Deep Attention:
The Generational Divide in Cognitive Modes,
http://nokia.ly/15s08tf

17 Mindful
They found that those with email
changed between windows on their
computer twice as often as those
without, indicating that they were
not focusing on their work for such
sustained periods because they were
distracted by their inbox. The subjects
with email also had a ‘high alert’
heart rate all the time, while those
without had a more natural, variable
heart rate. ‘High alert’ heart rates are
linked to an increase in cortisol, the
hormone associated with stress.15
Being in a state of hyper-attention
can become a habit, almost an
addiction; when you sit down to
work without distractions, you can
find yourself feeling bored without
that high level of stimulation, and
craving your usual level of input.
(Many people describe a mild
feeling of disappointment on ‘slow
email days’ where they don’t get
their usual volume to respond to,
because it makes them feel less
satisfied, and less productive.)
The antidote to this is having
attention strategies for different
situations. While many of us manage
our time, few of us manage our
attention, despite the fact that it
is within our capabilities to do so.
Linda Stone, a former executive at
Microsoft and Apple, has worked with
executives and CEOs and observed
their time and attention management.
She found that almost everyone who
said that they managed their time
felt overwhelmed and burnt out, but
those who managed their attention
were more likely to report getting
into the desirable flow state.16
Being more mindful will make you
more conscious of where your
attention lies, and whether or not it
is in the right place. As you become
more aware of your attention, you
will have the knowledge you need
to develop attention strategies
for different kinds of work.
15 ‘
Email ‘vacations’ decrease stress’,
increase concentration’
http://nokia.ly/15s0boX
16
Rachel James,
‘Q&A: Linda Stone, former tech exec, on conscious
computing’, Smart Planet, http://nokia.ly/12NCGYP

Why design your day?
Right now, there isn’t any best
practice. The old rules and structures
of working life have been overturned
by technology. Working tools are
no longer tied to a particular place.
Pervasive connections, cloud storage
and flexible devices mean that we are
no longer dependent on a particular
locale to have access to the people,
information and tools we need to do
our jobs. Our phones allow us to tap
into our documents, our colleagues,
clients and suppliers wherever we are
in the world. For many, our devices are
our new offices, ones we can throw in
a bag and take with us wherever we go.
Even place-based concepts like
“home working” or “mobile working”
don’t really capture the shift that’s
going on. Place is no longer a vital
component of information work. If
we work anywhere, we work in the
flow: the flow of information, people
and communication. Flow also
describes the way that many aspire
to work - fluidly, adapting to changing
circumstances, but still with a
focused direction. It is fundamentally
different to the industrial-era
approach that has defined so much
working theory until recently.
Shifts like this cause dissonance,
tension and confusion. Many people
take comfort in familiar, traditional
structures, because they are tried
and tested. They minimise risk. Other
people are naturally risk-averse, and
for them, this is an uncomfortable
time. The old structures of work are
breaking down, and new ones will take
time to develop. People cling to the
old certainties even as they become
inefficient and damaging. Working
in the old office paradigm, tied to
a desk and a standard daily routine
leaves employees less efficient, less
passionate and, in aggregate, that
leaves companies less competitive.
Many people take comfort in
familiar, traditional structures,
because they are tried and tested.
They minimise risk. Other people
are naturally risk-averse, and
for them, this is an uncomfortable
time. The old structures of work
are breaking down, and new ones
will take time to develop. People
cling to the old certainties even
While many of us associate it with Buddhism and spirituality, mindfulness is
also frequently used therapeutically by psychologists. Dr Jon Kabbat-Zinn, who
helped to introduce the concept of mindfulness to the western world in the
1970s, describes it as:
In 2008, technology and business
writer Nicholas Carr asked the now
ubiquitous question ‘Is Google
making us stupid?’ in an article
for The Atlantic. He wrote:
“Media are not just passive channels
of information. They supply the stuff
of thought, but they also shape the
process of thought. And what the
Net seems to be doing is chipping
away my capacity for concentration
and contemplation. My mind now
expects to take in information
the way the Net distributes it: in a
swiftly moving stream of particles.
Once I was a scuba diver in the
sea of words. Now I zip along the
surface like a guy on a Jet Ski.”17
This article (and Carr’s subsequent
book, The Shallows) prompted a
huge debate over the impact of
the internet and technology on our
attention spans and memories. Some,
like Carr, argue that technology is
profoundly damaging our capacity
to pay attention for longer periods
of time, while others, like Jonah
Lehrer, argue that it has just exposed
how poor human concentration
is, and that technology can in fact
enhance our mental abilities.
Whichever side of the
argument you sit on, there is
evidence that technology is
changing the way we think.
In a study conducted at Columbia
University, subjects were asked
to type facts and trivia into a
computer. Half of the subjects were
told that the information would be
saved, while the other half were
told it would be erased. The group
who were told it would be erased
were significantly more likely to
remember the information.
In another test, they were asked
to remember the trivia statement
and which of five computer folders
it was saved in on the computer;
the subjects found it easier to
recall the folder than the fact.
Is the internet
changing how our
minds work?
17
Nicholas Carr,
Is Google Making Us Stupid?’, The Atlantic,
http://nokia.ly/12NCJUH
18
Betsy Sparrow, Jenny Liu, Daniel M Wenger,
‘Google Effects on Memory: Cognitive Consequences
of Having Information at Our Fingertips’,
http://nokia.ly/12NCJUH

Why design your day?
While many of us associate it with Buddhism and spirituality, mindfulness is
also frequently used therapeutically by psychologists. Dr Jon Kabbat-Zinn, who
helped to introduce the concept of mindfulness to the western world in the
1970s, describes it as:
19
Evan Selinger,
‘The Technologically Enhanced Memory’, Slate.
http://nokia.ly/12NCVDc
The researchers concluded that the
internet has become a primary form
of external or transactive memory.18
Transactive memory is a kind of
collective external memory - it used
to be the ‘group mind’ of a family,
group, or team, but is increasingly
being replaced by the web.
Far from making us stupid, this
could be seen as an advantage.
Evan Selinger writes:
“If we know information is available
online, we’re inclined to remember
where it can be found, rather than
struggle to retain the facts. This
evolutionary tendency to off-load
taxing aspects of cognition into
the environment—natural or built—
extends beyond using devices to recall
information we’re already familiar with.
This is called “extended cognition,”
and it plays a crucial role in a
controversial view called the
“extended mind” thesis. Advocates
argue that data-management
technologies, from low-tech pads to
high-tech computers, don’t always
function as mere memory-prompting
tools. Sometimes, they deserve to be
understood as parts of our mind.”19
By adopting technology as an
extension of our brain, we can use
it to bear some of the load and free
up mental capacity for other things.

20Mobile Mastery
Being more mindful in your approach to work and in your approach to using
technology will have a positive impact on your productivity and effectiveness,
and also in the level of stress you experience.
How to be more mindful.
You may find it challenging at first,
particularly if you’re used to being in
a reactive, hyper-attentive state, but
mindfulness is like a muscle: the more
you use it, the stronger it becomes.
As Howard Rheingold puts it:
“The mindful use of digital media
doesn’t happen automatically.
Thinking about what you are doing
and why you are doing it instead
of going through the motions is
fundamental to the definition of
mindful, whether you are deciding to
follow someone on Twitter, shutting
the lid of your laptop in class,
looking up from your BlackBerry in
a meeting, or consciously deciding
which links not to click.”20
Here we examine some key
ways to be more mindful.
Be in the moment
While it might sound like a
cliche, ‘being in the moment’ is a
key element to mindfulness. It’s
also very difficult to achieve.
It means paying more attention to
what you’re doing at that present
moment, rather than approaching
tasks on autopilot while your mind is
also dealing with other matters. In a
mindful approach, multitasking should
be dropped in favour of focusing on
one thing at a time. (Neuroscience
provides strong evidence that
multitasking is an inefficient way
of working, because we function
best when we work sequentially.21
)
In practice, this means committing to
being completely present in whatever
you’re doing, whether that’s setting
your laptop and phone aside during
a meeting, or shutting down social
networks when you’re focusing on a
task that they won’t help you with.
Mindful
20
Howard Rheingold,
Net Smart: How To Thrive Online.
21
Adam Gorlick,
‘Media multitaskers pay mental price,
Stanford study shows’, Stanford Report,
http://nokia.ly/12ND0GY

21Mobile Mastery Mindful
Plan your approach
This is where the link between
metacognition and mindfulness
comes into play. By being mindful,
you should be creating the right
conditions for you to bring your
metacognitive skills to play.
This means thinking about how you
will approach the task mentally,
monitoring your progress as you go
along and evaluating your success at
the end. You should also extend this
to thinking about how technology
can support or hinder you.
In practice, this might mean breaking
down a big task into a workflow, and
tackling each task individually. It might
also mean identifying that some tasks
don’t need technology, while others
might be made far easier and quicker
with an app or gadget. It means not
always taking the same approach,
and trying new things. (More of this
in the ‘Playful’ section of the book.)
Think about your mood
Pay attention to your mood and think
about if/how you can change it.
The brain has two basic mental states -
‘toward’ and ‘away’. In a ‘toward’ state
you are positive, open and engaged,
while in an ‘away’ state, you are more
negative, defensive and withdrawn.
A ‘toward’ state is naturally more
productive, so if you are in an ‘away’
state and need to think clearly or
creatively, you should do anything you
can to change your mood to ‘toward’.

22Mobile Mastery
Let your mind wander
There’s nothing wrong with letting your
mind wander a little from time to time,
but you should be sure to gently bring
your attention back to the matter at
hand. In fact, letting your mind wander
can be helpful for some kinds of work.
There are two types of experience:
1. Narrative experience where your
mind wanders or you daydream.
2. Direct experience where
you aren’t thinking, but rather
experiencing information and
sensations in real-time.
In Your Brain At Work,
respected neuroscience
writer Dr David Rock says:
“You can experience the world through
your narrative circuitry, which will be
useful for planning, goal setting, and
strategizing. You can also experience
the world more directly, which
enables more sensory information
to be perceived. Experiencing the
world through the direct experience
network allows you to get closer to
the reality of any event. You perceive
more information about events
occurring around you, as well as more
accurate information about these
events. Noticing more real-time
information makes you more flexible
in how you respond to the world.
You also become less imprisoned by
the past, your habits, expectations
or assumptions, and more able to
respond to events as they unfold.”22
So then you shouldn’t be afraid to
let you mind just wander (within
reason) if you’re planning or working
on a strategy document, and bearing
in mind the role the internet plays
as transactive memory (which
we discussed in ‘Is the internet
changing how our minds work?’,
being online could help. However, in
a meeting, you should try to foster
a direct experience state where
you’re more flexible and open.
Mindful
22
Dr David Rock,
Your Brain At Work
23
Peretz Lavie,
The Enchanted World of Sleep
24
Tony Schwartz,
‘A 90-minute Plan for Personal Effectivness’,
Harvard Business Review
http://nokia.ly/15s0Czq

23 Mindful
Acknowledge that
your energy is limited.
Working mindfully and with full
concentration is tiring, physically as
well as mentally - your brain can use
as much as 20% of your body’s energy.
Try working in short bursts - research
suggests that our ‘ultradian rhythm’
means that 90 minutes is the
longest that we can maintain really
intense focus for23
, and beyond
that we start to feel distracted,
restless and even irritable. Tony
Schwartz, founder of the Energy
Project, writes that many of us
ignore these signals that we need a
break, or try to power through using
caffeine and sugar as a quick fix.24
An alternative approach is the
Pomodoro technique, where you work
in 25 minute bursts, then take a five
minute break, and a longer 15-30
minute break between every four 25
minute bursts. By being mindful of
your energy levels and acknowledging
that you need a break, you can boost
your productivity. Simple timer apps25
and dedicated Pomodoro apps26
are readily available and could be a
useful tool for your smartphone.
Choose a prompt
Try and create a prompt to
make being mindful a habit.
Think about the times when you need
to be mindful and the activities linked
to that and make one of those your
reminder that it’s time to be mindful.
It could be sitting down at your desk,
turning off the WiFi on your laptop,
putting your phone on airplane mode
etc - that’s your prompt that you’re
going into mindful mode and will
be focusing hard for a set period.
The Mindfulness App27
lets you
set reminders to be mindful at
certain times of the day or when
you arrive at or leave a location. It
also lets you know how long you’ve
been mindful for with bells, so
you don’t have to break focus
and check the app for timings.
Be critical
In a mindful approach it’s also
important to question whether
what you’re focusing on is worthy
of your time or not. You could take
a leaf out of Howard Rheingold’s
book and write ‘Does this deserve
my attention?’ on a sticky note and
put it on your computer monitor
to remind you to question whether
you’re focusing on the right thing.28
25
http://nokia.ly/12ND5KY
26
http://nokia.ly/15s0JLz
27
http://nokia.ly/15s0HTO
28
http://nokia.ly/15s0Ma9
Mobile Mastery

Why design your day?
Right now, there isn’t any best
practice. The old rules and structures
of working life have been overturned
by technology. Working tools are
no longer tied to a particular place.
Pervasive connections, cloud storage
and flexible devices mean that we are
no longer dependent on a particular
locale to have access to the people,
information and tools we need to do
our jobs. Our phones allow us to tap
into our documents, our colleagues,
clients and suppliers wherever we are
in the world. For many, our devices are
our new offices, ones we can throw in
a bag and take with us wherever we go.
Even place-based concepts like
“home working” or “mobile working”
don’t really capture the shift that’s
going on. Place is no longer a vital
component of information work. If
we work anywhere, we work in the
flow: the flow of information, people
and communication. Flow also
describes the way that many aspire
to work - fluidly, adapting to changing
circumstances, but still with a
focused direction. It is fundamentally
different to the industrial-era
approach that has defined so much
working theory until recently.
Shifts like this cause dissonance,
tension and confusion. Many people
take comfort in familiar, traditional
structures, because they are tried
and tested. They minimise risk. Other
people are naturally risk-averse, and
for them, this is an uncomfortable
time. The old structures of work are
breaking down, and new ones will take
time to develop. People cling to the
old certainties even as they become
inefficient and damaging. Working
in the old office paradigm, tied to
a desk and a standard daily routine
leaves employees less efficient, less
passionate and, in aggregate, that
leaves companies less competitive.
Many people take comfort in
familiar, traditional structures,
because they are tried and tested.
They minimise risk. Other people
are naturally risk-averse, and
for them, this is an uncomfortable
time. The old structures of work
are breaking down, and new ones
will take time to develop. People
cling to the old certainties even
While many of us associate it with Buddhism and spirituality, mindfulness is
also frequently used therapeutically by psychologists. Dr Jon Kabbat-Zinn, who
helped to introduce the concept of mindfulness to the western world in the
1970s, describes it as:
Purposeful.
24Mobile Mastery Purposeful
The second element of mobile
mastery is being purposeful.
Purpose gives us the impetus to
begin something, a target to push
towards, and a reward when we
complete a task. Without purpose,
we can never truly take ownership
of our actions, and we risk getting
trapped in a cycle of directionless
experimentation, without any
real knowledge, understanding or
insight into what we are doing.
It’s vital that your use of mobile
technology is purposeful if you want
to go beyond passive usage and
create a more dynamic and valuable
relationship with your devices; one
built upon a framework of clear
motivations and defined goals.
When used correctly, the technology
in your life can become an extension
of your intentions. This is why it is
key to consider the purpose of the
technology in your life. The thrill of
new things can be intoxicating and
we all fall prey to the desire to stay
on the cutting edge. But precisely
because devices and apps can play
such an important role in our lives and
work, we need to carefully consider
why we’re using them, to ensure
we’re using the right tool for the job.
In this chapter, we will:
• Learn about the threats of
connection fatigue, information
anxiety, and internet addiction.
• Get practical tips on using
digital technology to achieve
meaningful targets.

25Mobile Mastery
The smartphone in your hands can
do so much more than simply make
calls or browse the net. With a few
taps of the screen, you can make
notes, book appointments, prepare
presentations, check your schedule,
explore the world, document
your experiences with images and
videos, and much more beyond.
Now that our digital work tools are
accessible and portable like never
before, each of us has a virtually
limitless array of mobile processes
at our disposal. However, any tool
is useless unless you know how to
operate it, and due thought must
be applied to deciding the specific
function of each piece of technology.
When you begin a task, what do
you reach for? Do you need to be
at a desktop computer, or will a
smartphone suffice? If pen and
paper can accomplish the same
results as a tablet, then why
complicate things unless you can
expect very specific benefits?
Begin each task by thinking about its
purpose. Don’t simply picture the end
result: a completed spreadsheet, an
empty inbox, or an elegant work of
design. Go beyond the final object,
and picture the impact the work you
produce will have, like ripples on a
pond after dropping in a pebble.
Ask yourself why you are building
that spreadsheet. Is it to streamline
working practices going forward?
To provide a valuable asset for a
client or for your team? This is the
true purpose of your task: not the
end product, but the consequences
of that product’s existence.
Consider the requirements, and
be sure you match the tool to the
task. The awesome processing
power granted to us by computers
is easily squandered if used in
the wrong way. Herein lies truly
purposeful awareness, and
technology when mastered provides
a purposeful impact like no other.
You wouldn’t use a hammer to chop down a tree, and you wouldn’t paint your
house with a broom. In much the same way, truly purposeful use of mobile
technology requires choosing exactly the right tool for the job at hand.
The right tool for the job.
Purposeful

Why design your day?
Right now, there isn’t any best
practice. The old rules and structures
of working life have been overturned
by technology. Working tools are
no longer tied to a particular place.
Pervasive connections, cloud storage
and flexible devices mean that we are
no longer dependent on a particular
locale to have access to the people,
information and tools we need to do
our jobs. Our phones allow us to tap
into our documents, our colleagues,
clients and suppliers wherever we are
in the world. For many, our devices are
our new offices, ones we can throw in
a bag and take with us wherever we go.
Even place-based concepts like
“home working” or “mobile working”
don’t really capture the shift that’s
going on. Place is no longer a vital
component of information work. If
we work anywhere, we work in the
flow: the flow of information, people
and communication. Flow also
describes the way that many aspire
to work - fluidly, adapting to changing
circumstances, but still with a
focused direction. It is fundamentally
different to the industrial-era
approach that has defined so much
working theory until recently.
Shifts like this cause dissonance,
tension and confusion. Many people
take comfort in familiar, traditional
structures, because they are tried
and tested. They minimise risk. Other
people are naturally risk-averse, and
for them, this is an uncomfortable
time. The old structures of work are
breaking down, and new ones will take
time to develop. People cling to the
old certainties even as they become
inefficient and damaging. Working
in the old office paradigm, tied to
a desk and a standard daily routine
leaves employees less efficient, less
passionate and, in aggregate, that
leaves companies less competitive.
Many people take comfort in
familiar, traditional structures,
because they are tried and tested.
They minimise risk. Other people
are naturally risk-averse, and
for them, this is an uncomfortable
time. The old structures of work
are breaking down, and new ones
will take time to develop. People
cling to the old certainties even
While many of us associate it with Buddhism and spirituality, mindfulness is
also frequently used therapeutically by psychologists. Dr Jon Kabbat-Zinn, who
helped to introduce the concept of mindfulness to the western world in the
1970s, describes it as:
The ease with which mobile tools allow
us to accomplish daily tasks opens up
a vast ocean of potential that previous
generations of people had no access
to, either at home or at work.
While this is a welcome advance,
one of the major threats to
purposeful mobile mastery is
that when things get easier, there
is an invariable tendency for
them to become simpler too.
Cultural commentators frequently
lament the decline of contemporary
language skills as shorthand text-
speak prevails and spellcheck and
autocomplete do the linguistic
heavy lifting for us. With this in
mind, you could argue that there are
benefits in making things difficult for
ourselves, to stay mentally sharp.
An example of this thinking in
action comes from experimental
architects Arakawa & Gins. Their
theory is that for a home to keep
its inhabitants healthy and young it
should provide perpetual challenges.
This founding principle sparked a
sequence of ideas that eventually
led them to construct a complex
of ‘Reversible Destiny Lofts’ in
Tokyo. Featuring light switches
situated on the ceiling that require
you to stretch your body to reach
them, uneven floors that test your
balance as you move from room
to room, and brightly-coloured
surfaces that stimulate your senses
constantly, these unique living
spaces are designed to force a
mental and physical workout into the
most basic routines of daily life.29
The working function is to keep
your mind and body fighting fit by
living on the peripheral boundary
of your comfort zone, and there
is strong evidence for the same
to apply to your working life.
Effortless,
not comfortable.
29 ‘
For rent: Reversible Destiny Lofts’,
Pink tentacle, http://nokia.ly/12NDeOq

Why design your day?
While many of us associate it with Buddhism and spirituality, mindfulness is
also frequently used therapeutically by psychologists. Dr Jon Kabbat-Zinn, who
helped to introduce the concept of mindfulness to the western world in the
1970s, describes it as:
30
Nicholas Carr,
Is Google Making Us Stupid?
The Atlantic, http://nokia.ly/12NCJUH
31
Sean Kelly and Hubert Dreyfus,
All Things Shining: Reading the Western Classics to Find
Meaning in a Secular Age
A great many theorists are now
seriously concerned that the times
we’re living in have allowed our
brains to become too comfortable.
In ‘Is Google Making Us Stupid?’,
Nicholas Carr writes of the impact
of technology on his ability to
focus30
. In their book All Things
Shining, Harvard University’s Sean
Kelly and Hubert Dreyfus even go
so far as to to warn that universal
reliance upon GPS navigation will
erode our skills to the point that
it will “flatten out human life.” 31
A little simplicity can be a good
thing, but over time it runs the
risk of blunting our cognitive skills
through sustained neglect. Consider
whether you’re using your app or
device to save you time, or out of
laziness. If it’s the latter, it might
be worth going back to doing
things the old-fashioned way.

28Mobile Mastery
It’s clear that to avoid the threats technology poses, we need increased
personal awareness and a higher level of mobile mastery. With this in mind, the
way in which you perform a task can be just as important as the task itself.
Sometimes, the process itself can be the purpose.
The process
is the purpose.
Acknowledging the dual relationship
between process and purpose is
an evolutionary leap forward in
technological attitudes. By having
made the decision to do something
we are not just working towards our
goals or purpose, but are also honing
our skills and purpose along the way.
By spending more time considering
the tools you use and the goal you
want to reach, you can come to
understand and make informed
choices about why you do things
a certain way: not simply to reach
a certain result, but also because
there is meaning and value in taking
a particular path to reach it.
Another significant choice we face
is not just selecting the way to
do things, but making the active
decision of how not to do them.
Cutting out unnecessary noise can
be one of the most difficult practical
disciplines to uphold, and represents
a major step on the path to mobile
mastery, as it saves not just time,
but cognitive expenditure too.
Your brain wants to solve problems,
and will latch onto behavioural
patterns that produce results. This
is due to the way your brain links
pathways from neuron to neuron
as you learn new processes.
Greg Satell of innovation blog
Creativity Post writes that far from
being random, the connections
between our neurons evolve through
two primary processes: Hebbian
plasticity and feedback. According
to Hebbian plasticity ‘neurons that
fire together, wire together,’ so the
the more we use a particular neural
pathway the stronger it gets. And
feedback means we tend to reuse
the pathways that lead to success.32
This is good news for your brain,
because it means that the
most effective methods take
root most strongly. Your mind
is able to recognise results and
strives to repeat any previously
successful course of action.
Purposeful

29Mobile Mastery
This is another instance of process
becoming purpose; by trying different
methods, the neurons in your mind
are working behind the scenes to
test connections and strengthen
the most successful pathways. In
this sense, the awesome power
of your brain makes it the most
valuable tool in your collection.
In an article for Scientific American,
Paul Reber illuminates the
staggering mnemonic capacity of
the ‘software’ in your head, and
frames it in technological terms:
“The human brain consists of about
one billion neurons. Each neuron
forms about 1,000 connections to
other neurons, amounting to more
than a trillion connections. If each
neuron could only help store a single
memory, running out of space would
be a problem. You might have only a
few gigabytes of storage space, similar
to the space in a USB flash drive.
Yet neurons combine so that each
one helps with many memories at a
time, exponentially increasing the
brain’s memory storage capacity
to something closer to around 2.5
petabytes (or a million gigabytes).
For comparison, if your brain worked
like a digital video recorder in a
television, 2.5 petabytes would be
enough to hold three million hours of
TV shows. You would have to leave the
TV running continuously for more than
300 years to use up all that storage.”33
However, this impressive processing
capability and predilection for
results doesn’t necessarily mean
that the fastest solution is the best.
As our brains become increasingly
symbiotic with our mobile devices,
the constant traffic of information
both towards and away from us
can become overwhelming. If you
fail to keep up with the rapid flow,
you risk being swept away by it.
Purposeful
32
Greg Satell,
‘The Infinite Monkey Theorem’, Creativity Post,
http://nokia.ly/15s0VKL
33
Paul Reber,
What Is the Memory Capacity of the Human Brain?’,
Scientific American, http://nokia.ly/12NDw83

30Mobile Mastery
Stacks and flows.
When we don’t have mastery over
our devices, the sheer speed and
relentless torrent of correspondence
and information can create a
cognitive dead-end in the form
of information anxiety, otherwise
classified as ‘fear of missing out’.
There is a vital mental distinction
to be made between media stacks,
which require individual attention
for each item, and media flows,
which should be dipped into when
we need assistance or inspiration.
Your email inbox, when properly
tamed, is a prime example of stack
media in action. Twitter on the other
hand represents flow media, which
can be just as useful, but runs the risk
of dragging us away from our working
purpose for the reliable and addictive
dopamine hit of infinite scrolling.
In an article for Wired, technology
writer Mat Honan suggests that
to elevate its usefulness, Twitter
and other flow media services
need to find a way to deliver
less bulk content, and more
specifically targeted information:
“We are increasingly struggling to stay
afloat in our data streams…We’re
drowning in as-it-happens data. It’s
the stuff that gets us to wake up in
Purposeful

31Mobile Mastery Purposeful
the morning and grab a phone and
start sorting. It’s not just Twitter, it’s
also email, Facebook, Instagram, our
news feeds, and all those other inputs
we check during every waking hour.”34
Not all connections need to be a
two-way street. Emails and phone
calls are conversations that can
invade our mental space, but blogs,
Twitter and other platforms should be
thought of more as a ‘casting-out’.
Dip into the flow media when you
need to, and forget all about it when
you don’t. Information anxiety sets in
when we find ourselves compulsively
checking Twitter or RSS feeds due
to a needless fear of missing out.
A few mobile mastery tweaks can
ensure you auto-archive the most
important items, reserving them to
be read when the time is right for
you. This means you can condition
your brain to relax and concentrate
with full attention on the purpose at
hand. The rest of the world can wait.
34
Mat Honan,
‘Twitter’s Big Challenge’, Wired
http://nokia.ly/12NDyg5

32Mobile Mastery Purposeful
Harvard University psychology
professor B.F. Skinner’s 1984
research paper ‘The Evolution Of
Behaviour’, is often cited to explain
the addictive nature of the web.
In his research, Skinner placed rats
inside an ‘operant conditioning
chamber’ (also known as a ‘Skinner
Box’), and trained the animals that
pushing a small button would deliver
a pellet of food. The rats would
continue to compulsively push the
button even after a variable reward
schedule was introduced, meaning
that their actions would only
occasionally produce a result.35
The comparison of some internet
users and Skinner’s test-subjects is
uncomfortably appropriate. Each of
us at times exhibits this behaviour
of repetitively performing the same
action in the hope that we’ll achieve a
different result than before, endlessly
refreshing our inboxes for no reason
other than hoping for a dopamine hit.
Connection fatigue and internet
addiction are the nemesis of any
devotee of the purposeful use of
technology. And, as we discussed
in ‘Is the internet changing how our
minds work?’ there are those who
are seriously worried about what
permanent damage poor use of
technology may be doing to
our minds.
Information anxiety is one of many symptoms that indicate mismanagement
of mobile technology. Another is ‘connection fatigue’, the numbing state of
mind otherwise recognised as the increasingly common problem of
internet addiction.
Connection fatigue
and internet addiction.
35
BF Skinner,
‘The Evolution of Behaviour’,
Journal of Experimental Analysis of Behavior,
http://nokia.ly/15s1eVT

By striving for purposeful mastery
of technology, you are making a
decisive step to remove yourself
from this messy modern problem.
Many people shy away from
perpetual connectivity by hoping
to lead a simpler life removed from
these hectic times in the state
that Rushkoff calls ‘Apocalypto’.
However, this needn’t be the case.
When tamed and implemented
with a distinct sense of direction
and discipline, connected mobile
technology can be the gateway to
higher plains of achievement.
In his book Present Shock:
When Everything Happens Now,
media-theorist Douglas Rushkoff
outlines five emergent disorders
of the modern age that illustrate
the ways a lack of mastery is
damaging our collective thinking:
1. Narrative collapse
“the loss of linear stories…with
no goals to justify journeys.”
2. Digiphrenia
“how technology lets us be in more
than one place, and self, at the same
time…we all become overwhelmed.”
3. Overwinding
“trying to squish huge timescales
into much smaller ones.”
4. Fractalnoia
“making sense of our world entirely
in the present tense, by drawing
connections between things…
sometimes inappropriately.”
5. Apocalypto
“the intolerance for presentism
leads us to fantasize a grand
finale… yearning for a simpler
life devoid of pings.”36
33Mobile Mastery Purposeful
36
Douglas Rushkoff,
Present Shock: When Everything Happens Now

34Mobile Mastery Purposeful
We suggest the following five personal
methodologies, which you can
memorise with the acronym START:
• Step away from email if you want
to work without distraction.
• Two large projects a day is the
ideal target to avoid stress.
• Archive your achievements with a
‘done’ list to help reflect on your day’s
performance.
• Ruthlessly cut your to-do list down
- if you hesitate before adding it, then
don’t add it.
• Type anything, to fill a page. If
you’re having trouble getting
motivated, then do whatever you
can to fill a blank page. Editing a
stream-of-consciousness is much
easier than facing the monolithic
expanse of an empty page.
How to be purposeful.

35Mobile Mastery Purposeful

36Mobile Mastery Title of section
Playfulness isn’t the sole preserve of
childhood, it’s a valuable attribute in
adulthood too. Being playful is about
exploring, spontaneity, doing new
things for the sake of enjoyment.
PLAYFUL.

37Mobile Mastery Playful
Play has a place in mobile mastery
because it has an essential role in the
processes of learning and innovation.
Cognitive playfulness - a term coined
by Jennifer Pei-Ling Tan - refers to
the kind of serious intellectual play
that fosters creativity. People who are
cognitively playful have a tendency
towards curiosity and inventiveness,
the precursors of innovation38
, and
a study conducted by staff from the
University of North Texas indicates
that playfulness and innovation have
a correlation with people’s ability to
use technology at a high level.39
Technology is also inherently
playful. We treat new devices like
a child treats a new toy: we covet
them, we get pleasure from using
them, we don’t look at them and see
functionality, we see possibilities,
novelty and excitement.
It’s important not to lose this
excitement on the journey to
mobile mastery. Mindfulness gives
you awareness, purposefulness
gives you an objective, but
playfulness is there to give you
fun, innovation and possibilities.
In this section you we’ll explore:
• The benefits of being playful in
your use of technology.
• The importance of engaging your
critical thinking.
• Ways that you can be more
playful in your use of technology.
37
Jennifer Pei-Ling Tan,
Seeing Cognitive Playfulness
http://nokia.ly/15s1h3V
38
Lemoyne Luette Scott Dunn,
Cognitive playfulness, innovativeness, and belief
of essentialness: Characteristics of educators
who have the ability to make enduring changes
in the integration of technology into the
classroom environment.

The benefits
of being playful.
Being playful is in part about fun, but it also has clear benefits in terms
of business and personal development, because of its interrelation
with innovation. Being playful gives you the chance to make discoveries
that could give you the edge personally and professionally, and also
give your business an advantage over less innovative competitors.
Risk
Before we talk about the benefits
of being playful in your use of
technology, it is important to
think about the risks too.
Investing in new technology can be
expensive, and involves disruption to
your tried, tested and proven ways of
doing things. You’re risking your time,
money and productivity. However,
there are big rewards to play for,
which might make that risk worthwhile.
A McKinsey report on the social
economy which analysed 4,200
companies found that social
technologies had the potential
to unlock $900 billion to $1.3
trillion in value each year and
improve the productivity of
knowledge workers by 20-25%.40
This dichotomy between innovation
and risk existed long before mobile
technology came into being. In
fact, it was a 1950s sociological
study into the habits of farmers
that coined the term ‘early
adopter’ which we now associate
so closely with digital devices.
The study came up with five
different profiles for the ways in
which people tend to approach
the adoption of new technology,
which were later developed by
Everett Rodgers into a theory called
the ‘Diffusion of Innovations’:
38Mobile Mastery Playful
39
Michael Chui, James Manyika, Jacques Bughin,
Richard Dobbs, Charles Roxburgh, Hugo Sarrazin,
Geoffrey Sands and Magdalena Westergren,
The social economy: Unlocking value andd
productivity through social technologies,
http://nokia.ly/15s1iVv

5
4
3
2
1
39Mobile Mastery Playful
40
Everett Rodgers,
Diffusion of Innovations
1. Innovators
The first people to adopt new
ideas; they tend to be young risk
takers in a strong financial position,
and also tend to be very social,
with ties to other innovators.
2. Early adopters
They are the second fastest to
adopt new technologies; they tend
to be young, financially stable,
social and well educated. They
also tend to be opinion leaders.
3. Early majority
They are significantly slower in
their adoption of technology than
early adopters; they tend to be
cautious, but have contact with
early adopters. They rarely hold
positions where they lead opinion.
4. Late majority
They adopt technology slowly;
they tend to be skeptical about
innovation, less stable financially
and mostly come into contact with
other members of the late majority,
and some of the early majority.
5. Laggards
They are the last to adopt new
technology; they tend to be averse
to change, focus on tradition
and only have social contact with
family and close friends.41
Play can help make being an innovator
or an early adopter less of a risk.
Play is a time to take chances, make
mistakes and learn from them. It
should allow you to experiment in a
way that feels safe, rather than in a
way that makes you worry about the
time or money you might be wasting.
(We’ll talk more about a framework
for being playful in the next section.)
Risk

40Mobile Mastery Playful
Social networks like Twitter and
LinkedIn give you the ability to make
more of these weak ties and enjoy
the valuable flow of information they
afford. You can make weak ties with
innovators and early adopters that
you might never meet in your daily
life through social networks, and tap
into their knowledge and connections.
While we can play alone, involving
others has the potential to make
the experience more enriching.
Mobile technology gives us a way
to play and explore as a group. It
gives you access to collective and
collaborative intelligence, whether
it’s benefitting from the knowledge
of a huge community via Wikipedia,
or crowdsourcing funding, or
consulting Twitter’s hive mind for
the solution to a problem. And it is
by playing and experimenting with
these networks that you will learn
to use them most effectively.
Building social ties
The diffusion of innovation shows
how important social ties are in
bringing new technology to your
attention. If you are lower down on
the ladder of adoption, looking up
a rung or two and trying to forge
ties with people in those groups
can help you speed up the pace
of your own adoption of the best
technology. It also means you can
watch others experiment and benefit
from their learnings and mistakes.
Playful use of technology can support
you in this exercise. Sociology
suggests that weak social ties - your
relationships with acquaintances
rather than close friends - are
responsible for transmitting a lot of
information, far more than travels
through the strong ties you have with
close friends or family. This is because
your weak ties are likely to know
people that you don’t know, which
means there is a great chance of them
transmitting novel information to you.

41Mobile Mastery Playful
Improving mental
health and development
As Dr David Rock and Dr Daniel Siegel
highlight in their Healthy Mind Platter,
play is an important ingredient in the
list of mental activities that form
the recipe for good mental health.42
It has a particularly important role
in relieving stress. When we play, we
often reach a ‘flow’ state of relaxed
concentration - you’re focused,
without any feeling of pressure,
which can be very relaxing, and is
a good way to take your mind off
anything that might be worrying you.
In addition, play can support your
mental development too. In his book
Play, Dr Stuart Brown, the founder
of the National Institute for Play,
explains that it stimulates nerve
growth in the parts of the brain
responsible for processing emotions
and controlling executive functions
like planning and problem solving.43
Supporting learning
Children tend to learn new systems
quickly and seemingly instinctively.
This is because they treat a lot of
learning as play; they try things out,
see what works, and don’t worry about
getting it wrong, but learn from it if
they do. Brown suggests that play is a
natural tool for learning: it helps us to
create new neural networks and when
we play, problems we are struggling
with continue to be processed by
our subconscious. So when you stop
playing and go back to work, you may
well find that knotty issue you’ve been
struggling with easier to untangle.
41
Dr David Rock and Dr Daniel Siegel,
The Healthy Mind Platter,
http://nokia.ly/12NDRHH
42
Stuart Brown,
Play: How It Shapes the Brain, Opens the
Imagination, and Invigorates the Soul.

Why design your day?
Right now, there isn’t any best
practice. The old rules and structures
of working life have been overturned
by technology. Working tools are
no longer tied to a particular place.
Pervasive connections, cloud storage
and flexible devices mean that we are
no longer dependent on a particular
locale to have access to the people,
information and tools we need to do
our jobs. Our phones allow us to tap
into our documents, our colleagues,
clients and suppliers wherever we are
in the world. For many, our devices are
our new offices, ones we can throw in
a bag and take with us wherever we go.
Even place-based concepts like
“home working” or “mobile working”
don’t really capture the shift that’s
going on. Place is no longer a vital
component of information work. If
we work anywhere, we work in the
flow: the flow of information, people
and communication. Flow also
describes the way that many aspire
to work - fluidly, adapting to changing
circumstances, but still with a
focused direction. It is fundamentally
different to the industrial-era
approach that has defined so much
working theory until recently.
Shifts like this cause dissonance,
tension and confusion. Many people
take comfort in familiar, traditional
structures, because they are tried
and tested. They minimise risk. Other
people are naturally risk-averse, and
for them, this is an uncomfortable
time. The old structures of work are
breaking down, and new ones will take
time to develop. People cling to the
old certainties even as they become
inefficient and damaging. Working
in the old office paradigm, tied to
a desk and a standard daily routine
leaves employees less efficient, less
passionate and, in aggregate, that
leaves companies less competitive.
Many people take comfort in
familiar, traditional structures,
because they are tried and tested.
They minimise risk. Other people
are naturally risk-averse, and
for them, this is an uncomfortable
time. The old structures of work
are breaking down, and new ones
will take time to develop. People
cling to the old certainties even
While many of us associate it with Buddhism and spirituality, mindfulness is
also frequently used therapeutically by psychologists. Dr Jon Kabbat-Zinn, who
helped to introduce the concept of mindfulness to the western world in the
1970s, describes it as:
The Slow Web, Conscious Computing,
Contemplative Computing… these
are just some of the different
movements that are all looking
for a more considered and mindful
approach to technology in our society.
The Slow Web Manifesto says:
“The web moves at an incredible pace,
and increasingly services are being
demanded live. With a live web, users
have come to expect real-time (or
close to) feedback. Indeed, by the
virtue of being consumer to web
services, one finds oneself inundated
by notifications and feedback from
said services. Welcome to the fast
web. Your attention is required now.
Here, and there, and everywhere…
We believe that one should be doing
what one does best at doing [sic],
instead of being drip-fed a constant
stream of information and being
pressured to respond instantly.”44
The element that all of these
movements have in common is the
idea that technology should be there
to support us, rather than distract
us, and that we need to be conscious
of our relationship with technology.
Many of the people involved in
these movements are trying to use
technology to come up with solutions
to the problems created by always-on,
available-everywhere connectivity.
For example the University of
Stanford’s Calming Technology Lab
has created apps and programmes
to encourage calm breathing
patterns while you use your
computer or mobile phone45
,
and there are numerous apps which
will allow you to block or limit the time
you can spend on certain websites.
The Slow Web.
43
The Slow Web: A Manifesto,
http://nokia.ly/15s1rZ6
44
‘Projects’, Calming Technology,
http://nokia.ly/12NDYTH

Why design your day?
While many of us associate it with Buddhism and spirituality, mindfulness is
also frequently used therapeutically by psychologists. Dr Jon Kabbat-Zinn, who
helped to introduce the concept of mindfulness to the western world in the
1970s, describes it as:

44Mobile Mastery Playful
For many of us, being playful is a habit
we’ve grown out of. But thankfully,
habits can be reformed. In this section
we’ll look at some ways to make being
playful in your use of devices, apps,
social networks and mobile in general
a productive part of your routine.
Keep your eyes and ears open
Keep your ear to the ground for
new ideas that you might want to
try out. You could find ideas from
people you know in real life, through
social networks, or reading. You
could also ask people who are
innovators or early adopters what their
recommendations and suggestions are.
Be open to new ideas
It’s easy to be dismissive of radical
ideas, but part of being playful is being
open. If you find yourself wanting to
close yourself off to a new idea, try
asking yourself why it is that you’re
opposed to it. If your reasons stand
up to questioning, then move on
to the next idea, but if not, give it a
try - you might surprise yourself.
Make time for play
Make time in your day for play; if you
find it hard to do this organically, it
might help to block out time in your
diary for it. When we’re busy, being
playful might seem like an easy
thing to push to one side, but it’s an
important part of you day. Look at
it as an investment; an investment
in innovation, productivity, learning,
and also in your health. Keri Smith’s
How To Be An Explorer Of The World
has some great exercises to help you
become more playful everyday.
Think beyond work
Don’t just think about how you can use
mobile technology to improve your
work life. You can also use it to enhance
exercise, health, social life and learning.
Experiment
Treat your playtime as a chance to
experiment with mobile technology, a
chance to learn something new. Test
out new ways of working and living
with mobile, and analyse the results.
Fail fast
Aim to fail fast in your experiments.
Try things out, and don’t be afraid to
abandon your experiment if it’s not
working for you, but try to do so quickly,
so that you take up as little time as
possible, and can move onto the next
idea - which might just be a winner. In
practice, this might mean running your
own pilot schemes of new technology,
or coming up with prototype ways of
working. You could also try having a trial
section on your homescreen where you
put apps that you’re testing, and which
you commit to regularly clearing out.
How to be playful.

45Mobile Mastery Playful
Critical thinking.
Try to be selective about what new
mobile technologies you try out, and
think about whether they’re really
worthy of your time and attention.
It can be easy to get excited about a
new app or gadget, and be swept up
by the hype and enthusiasm other
people have for it. However, while
there’s nothing wrong with trying
something new, it’s important to think
critically about why you’re doing it
and what the potential benefits (and
risks) might be. Think back to the
other two pillars of mobile mastery,
mindfulness and purposefulness,
and ask yourself the following
questions about any new device, app,
website or content you’re using:
• Who created it?
What were their motivations
in creating it, and do these
motivations have any potential
impact on its quality or usefulness?
• What purpose does it serve?
Does the thing you’re using
have a clear and useful purpose?
• Where does it fit?
How will it fit into your day, both in
terms of the time it takes up
and the role that it plays?
• When would you use it?
At what times and in what
situations would it be most
effective and useful?
• Why are you using it?
Is it truly useful, or beautiful?
• How does it make you feel?
What impact is it having on
your work and your attention?
This framework can help you analyse
the value of your ‘playtime’ and make
sure that you’re approaching it in a
way that’s mindful and purposeful.
Your time, energy and attention are valuable, and while time
spent being playful is valuable, it needs to be tempered with
critical thinking about what and who you engage with.

46
Masterful tools.
Masterful toolsMobile Mastery
There are many examples of mobile
mastery being demonstrated to
excellent effect, and new products
and services emerge every day. In
fact, the sheer volume of apps that
claim to be able to change your
working life can at times be too vast
to consider exploring with any depth.
Because of this, we’d like to
highlight just a small selection
of noteworthy examples that we
feel put the principles of mobile
mastery into practice in ways that
are both innovative and useful.
We’ve focussed on web services
rather than platform specific apps,
to make this book useful to as
wide an audience as possible.
IFTTT.COM
Rising in popularity at an impressive
rate is IFTTT.com. With the simple
yet intriguing strapline: “Putting
the internet to work for you”, IFTTT
allows users to easily create and
share programmable rulesets to
automate various aspects of digital
activity. The name of the service is
an acronym of the basic formula for
these programmes, or ‘recipes’ as
they call them - “If This, Then That”.
Sample recipes include productivity
solutions such as creating an Evernote
note whenever an email is starred,
practical helpers to let you know the
night before if rain is predicted in your
area so that you can pack an umbrella,
and even quirky, fun ideas like
connecting your lights to your MP3
collection so they can automatically
dim when a slow song is played.
With user-generated recipes of every
type being uploaded constantly,
we can hardly think of a more
mindful, purposeful, and playful
use of mobile mastery in action.

47Mobile Mastery Masterful tools
“IDoneThis is a part of the Slow
Web movement. After you email
us, your calendar is not updated
instantaneously. But rest
up, and you’ll find an updated
calendar when you wake.”
The notion that a company would
be consciously trying to move
at a less convenient speed is just
as revolutionary as the sincere
suggestion that users should ‘rest
up’ and find things taken care of
automatically upon waking up. This
step is designed to prevent the
addiction-loop of B.F. Skinner’s
operant conditioning chamber,
wherein we perpetually refresh our
inboxes hoping for any kind of input.
The decision to not force all
activity to happen in ‘real-time’ is
significant, because it not only frees
us from the tyranny of dopamine
addiction, but it also prompts us
to be more aware of the positive
power of digital technology.
A masterfully engineered solution
will function without users needing
to check up on it, and the sooner we
are able to relinquish that control and
simply have faith in the systems we
use, the sooner we are free to concern
ourselves with something else… most
importantly, doing quality work.
iDoneThis.com
Another great piece of digital
engineering to help you achieve
more off of the back of a surprisingly
simple function is idonethis.com.
The basic principle of this handy
web-service is to keep a log of
the things you’ve successfully
accomplished, and report back
to you at the end of each day.
The benefits are both motivational
for individuals, and collaborative
for teams. It’s a brief moment
of reflection at the end of your
working day to review what has
been achieved, while sharing
project progress with colleagues.
Perhaps the most interesting
facet of the iDoneThis story is the
company’s explicit commitment to
the Slow Web movement, which we
discussed in the previous chapter.
The way that iDoneThis roots itself
within the borders of the slow web
is by factoring in a substantial delay
between a user inputting data and
said data appearing on their account.
The following statement
appears within the sign-off of all
automated iDoneThis emails:

48Mobile Mastery Masterful tools
Three.sentenc.es
One increasingly popular
manifestation of the Slow Web
movement is evident in a number
of people adopting the pledge
of three.sentenc.es (or its sister
sites, five.sentenc.es, four.
sentenc.es or two.sentenc.es.)
Declaring via an email signature that
you will limit your communications
to a pre-determined number of
sentences is a great way to show
your intention towards mobile
mastery and encourage others to be
more aware of the time and energy
being wasted every day as a result
of technological mismanagement.
Lift
Lift aims to help users reach personal
goals through daily email reminders
and connecting them with others
looking for similar achievements.
If you’ve always wanted to run a
marathon, then Lift can help you stick
to your training, and receive real-time
encouragement from other people
going through the same experience.
Other common goals include losing
weight, making more time for
reading, or saving for a holiday.
Lift is a great way to work towards a
goal that might seem unattainable
and motivate yourself through
small yet significant milestones.

49Mobile Mastery Masterful tools
Duolingo
Lastly, a further example of digital
technology helping people to improve
themselves is the free collaborative
language learning system Duolingo.
A beautifully presented in-browser
course for teaching yourself to read,
write and speak either Spanish, French,
Portuguese, German, Italian, or
English, the really striking feature of
Duolingo comes from its collaborative
gamification system, which
transposes the learning experience
into a competitive video-game.
Users score points by answering
questions correctly, lose lives when
they make mistakes, and ‘level up’ by
hitting pre-defined milestones, such
as learning the names of the months
or passing a test on the future tense.
There’s also a weekly leaderboard so
you can keep track of your friends’
progress and get a little competitive.
Perhaps the most interesting feature
of all is the fact that as users move
through the language course and
provide feedback, they are in turn
helping to build the course for their
linguistic counterparts - if you
speak English and study French, your
answers can eventually become a
part of the English course for French
speaking students (and vice versa).

50Mobile Mastery Title of section

51Mobile Mastery Conclusion
Everyone is getting to grips with
how they work with mobile. It is
something we need to discuss and
collaborate on with our colleagues.
We’ll master mobile faster and
more efficiently if we undertake the
process together, and share our
failures, successes and realisations.
In our next book in this series,
Teams That Flow, we will be
looking at how teams work in
the mobile , connected age.
To hear more about Nokia’s work
in this area, take a look at:
@NokiaAtWork
www.linkedin.com/company/nokia
www.nokia.com/business
Thanks for reading Mobile Mastery,
we hope that you’ve found it useful.
We wrote this book because we
want to make you think about
your relationship with and use
of technology. We want you to
question whether you’re doing all
you can to make the most of the
opportunities technology offers
and avoid the dangers it poses, and
ask yourself if you can legitimately
call yourself a mobile master.
Whether you think you’ve reached
mobile mastery or think you have
a way still to go, it’s important
to keep thinking about the
issues raised in this book.
Try not to think of mastery as
a fixed point at which we can
arrive and rest - technology will
always continue to evolve, so we
need to carry on learning and
refining our skills, and practicing
mindfulness, purposefulness
and playfulness in new ways.
Conclusion:
becoming masterful

52Mobile Mastery Reading list
Stuart Brown,
Play: How It Shapes the Brain,
Opens the Imagination, and
Invigorates the Soul
Nicholas Carr,
‘Is Google Making Us Stupid?’,
The Atlantic
http://nokia.ly/12NCJUH
Michael Chui, James Manyika,
Jacques Bughin, Richard
Dobbs, Charles Roxburgh, Hugo
Sarrazin, Geoffrey Sands and
Magdalena Westergren,
The social economy: Unlocking
value and productivity through
social technologies,
http://nokia.ly/15s1iVv
Cathy N Davidson,
Now You See It: How The Brain Science
Of Attention Will Transform The Way
We Live, Work and Learn
Dr. Theo L. Dawson,
‘Metacogniton and learning in
adulthood’, LECTICA,
http://nokia.ly/12NCkSd
EL Garland,
‘The meaning of mindfulness:
A second-order cybernetics
of stress, metacognition, and
coping’, Complementary
Health Practice Review.
N Katherine Hayles,
Hyper and Deep Attention:
The Generational Divide in
Cognitive Modes,
http://nokia.ly/15s08tf
Mat Honan,
‘Twitter’s Big Challenge’, Wired,
http://nokia.ly/12NDyg5
Rachel James,
Q&A: Linda Stone, former tech
exec, on conscious computing,
http://nokia.ly/12NCGYP
Reading list

53Mobile Mastery Reading list
Jon Kabat-Zinn,
Wherever You Go, There You
Are: Mindfulness Meditation
for Everyday Life
Peretz Lavie,
The Enchanted World of Sleep
Marc Prensky,
Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants
http://nokia.ly/15rZSuj
Howard Rheingold,
Net Smart: How To Thrive Online.
Dr David Rock,
Your Brain At Work
Dr David Rock and Dr Daniel Siegel,
The Healthy Mind Platter,
http://nokia.ly/12NDRHH
Everett Rodgers,
Diffusion of Innovations
Douglas Ruskhoff,
Present Shock: When
Everything Happens Now
Greg Satell,
‘The Infinite Monkey Theorem’,
Creativity Post
http://nokia.ly/15s0VKL
Evan Selinger,
‘The Technologically Enhanced
Memory,’ Slate
http://nokia.ly/12NCVDc
Tiffany Shlain,
‘Tech’s best Feature: the Off
Switch’, Harvard Business Review
http://nokia.ly/16VRbKZ
Betsy Sparrow, Jenny Liu,
Daniel M Wenger,
‘Google Effects on Memory:
Cognitive Consequences of Having
Information at Our Fingertips’,
http://nokia.ly/15s0sYU
The Slow Web: A Manifesto,
http://nokia.ly/15s1rZ6

#smartereveryday
@nokiaatwork