Coming soon to a Word document near you…or on your computer:

The Facebook experiment worked so well that Microsoft now plans to put microtasks into Word itself. As you’re working, you will be able to identify small bits that need doing—like finding a fact or finishing off a paragraph—and flag them with an @ symbol. Then Word pushes them out as emails to yourself (or to a colleague, if you’ve pinged them with an @), each message containing one task, which can be completed right inside the email itself. Once it’s done, Microsoft inserts the edit back into the Word doc—no cut-and-paste necessary, even if a colleague completes the work.

~ Clive Thompson, Wired

Is this something that now sounds nuts, like something that won’t work (read the article for more about the experiment referenced, where it seems it actually did work), and like something you don’t need – that will become seamlessly commonplace in a decade? Or is this an idea that will pass?

Am I old fashioned in thinking we should be focused more on getting rid of the distractions that require solutions to make the real work a distraction in and of itself so that it gets done little by little?