Turn Your Distractions Off For At Least Two Hours a Day

June 24, 2008 12:58 am

Email, Cell Phones, RSS, Podcasts, Twitter, Plurk, Facebook, Myspace, Flickr. There are too many things these days to distract you from actually getting work done at work. Some companies have shutdown access to some of the above mentioned service, and although I feel this is a drastic measure it does speak to the point that there are too many distractions during the day and companies are worrid.

I have found that during the work day I need to have "silent times" where I turn off all of the above distractions. I check my RSS feeds in the morning, after I break for lunch, and at the end of the day. I get so much email, that I need to turn that off three times a day, and train myself that I do not need to reply to emails the second they come in.

One of the benefits that I have from working out of my home is that I do not have in office distractions. When I did work in an office it was an unwritten rule that if someone had their headphones on, they were not to be disturbed. An extreme, but cool, measure would be to put lights above everyone’s cubicles so that they could turn them on and off when that person was available or not. Much like in the grocery store for open and closed checkout lanes.

Some developers are very easily distracted and need absolute concentration in order to cram some code. Self discipline is part of the key to being productive as well. Everyone should go silent at least twice a day to really try and get some non distracted work done.

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