The article makes some good points, and nobody likes constant interruptions and context switching. Especially in particularly complex parts of the coding process. I also agree that it often takes ~10 minutes after a significant distraction to get back into things.
I think non-programmers could definitely benefit from this article. But I also think it's a two way street and there are certain steps you can take to minimize the damage done. Some things I at least try to do:
- This may not go over well at everyone's companies, but just being honest with your coworkers sometimes. Send a message or email indicating you need to put your head down for a while to address priority tasks, and that you'll be logging out of Slack/IRC/whatever and can be contacted by email if anything urgent comes up. A healthy work environment should allow for it.
- If headphones on is a 'signal' to others not to bother you, just politely mention it to them if they keep interrupting you during. Invite them to email you with any non-critical issues and you'll get back to them when your higher priority work is done.
- Getting knocked out of the "zone" and it taking 15 minutes to get back... this definitely happens. But most meetings are scheduled. If your coworkers know your signal not to be bothered unless it's important, you can then work around the scheduled meetings. Do the less complicated coding tasks if possible leading up to the meeting so you don't need so long to get back in the zone after. If that isn't happening, at least keep a text editor open and jot down some notes to remind you of where your thought process was. A checklist is even better.
- Use bookmarks. A lot of editors / IDEs have them, and if you bookmark all the areas of interest, if you do actually have come back and 'get back in the zone' without notes, you can at least hop around the pertinent areas quickly to regain context.
Anyway, just some thoughts on what's helped me at least reduce that issue. I'm not sure it can completely go away.
While interruptions are bad for your own productivity, they may really boost the productivity of the person doing the interrupting. I'd rather have a junior dev interrupt me when he needs a quick answer to a question instead of spending an hour googling and copy-pasting a dangerous hack from Stack Overflow. What's the point of sitting in an office when you don't collaborate?
The trick I use to reduce the effect of interruptions is to not respond right away if I'm in the middle of something. I just say "I'm in the middle of something, let me just finish this!" and then I get back once I'm at a point where my "mental load" is reduced.
I think non-programmers could definitely benefit from this article. But I also think it's a two way street and there are certain steps you can take to minimize the damage done. Some things I at least try to do:
- This may not go over well at everyone's companies, but just being honest with your coworkers sometimes. Send a message or email indicating you need to put your head down for a while to address priority tasks, and that you'll be logging out of Slack/IRC/whatever and can be contacted by email if anything urgent comes up. A healthy work environment should allow for it.
- If headphones on is a 'signal' to others not to bother you, just politely mention it to them if they keep interrupting you during. Invite them to email you with any non-critical issues and you'll get back to them when your higher priority work is done.
- Getting knocked out of the "zone" and it taking 15 minutes to get back... this definitely happens. But most meetings are scheduled. If your coworkers know your signal not to be bothered unless it's important, you can then work around the scheduled meetings. Do the less complicated coding tasks if possible leading up to the meeting so you don't need so long to get back in the zone after. If that isn't happening, at least keep a text editor open and jot down some notes to remind you of where your thought process was. A checklist is even better.
- Use bookmarks. A lot of editors / IDEs have them, and if you bookmark all the areas of interest, if you do actually have come back and 'get back in the zone' without notes, you can at least hop around the pertinent areas quickly to regain context.
Anyway, just some thoughts on what's helped me at least reduce that issue. I'm not sure it can completely go away.