This document discusses strategies for avoiding interruptions and regaining focus as a maker or knowledge worker. It notes that context switching is expensive and most developers only have 1-2 hours of focused work per day due to interruptions. It then provides numerous suggestions for avoiding interruptions from other people, tools, and oneself through practices like dedicating focus time and spaces, asynchronous communication, limiting work in progress, and pairing with others. Finally, it discusses techniques for minimizing the impact of interruptions like preserving context and notes.
10. This talk is for people who work with Makers...
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11. This IS NOT a talk
about doing the right thing...
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12. This IS NOT a talk
about doing the thing well...
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13. This IS a talk
about having time to do the thingâŠ
with minimal waste...
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14. â Why do makers need time and focus for making?
â What is the state of focus in 2018?
â How can I avoid being interrupted?
â How can I get better at being interrupted?
â How can I take back my time?
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23. Context is information in our
consciousness that we need to
complete the work at hand.
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24. Prospective Memory
What is is?
Reminders to perform future actions
Example
Remembering to come back to this code and add error handling
http://blog.ninlabs.com/2013/01/programmer-interrupted/
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26. Attentive Memory
What is it?
Reminders about the current task to the current task
Example
Remembering to change a variable in location B and C after changing it in
location A
http://blog.ninlabs.com/2013/01/programmer-interrupted/
@azolyak
28. Conceptual Memory
What is it?
Recollection of concepts
Example
Remembering how JavaScript functions work
http://blog.ninlabs.com/2013/01/programmer-interrupted/
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30. Associative Memory
What is it?
Links between information
Example
Remembering how function Foo and Bar relate to each other
http://blog.ninlabs.com/2013/01/programmer-interrupted/
@azolyak
32. Episodic Memory
What is it?
Recollection of past events
Example
Remembering a lesson learned from a previous code review and applying it to
the current work
http://blog.ninlabs.com/2013/01/programmer-interrupted/
@azolyak
57. Multitasking
Multitasking as a âmythical activity in
which people believe they can perform
two or more tasks simultaneously as
effectively as one.â
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64. This is a buffet. Because I donât know what will work for
you, Iâm offering lots of options.
Pick a few things. Learn by doing.
Donât try everything. Youâll get sick. It will be bad.
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86. CAN IT WAIT?
... until the person sees your message?
⊠until your daily team standup?
⊠until your week planning meeting?
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87. MAKE TIME FOR INTERRUPTIONS
â DAILY standup
â WEEKLY planning
â WEEKLY retrospective
â Email at the end of each day
If you have a predictable cadence, people will be willing
to wait and less likely to interrupt you.
@azolyak
88. BUT HAVE A WAY TO REMEMBER THINGS TO DISCUSS
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89. BUT HAVE A WAY TO REMEMBER THINGS TO DISCUSS
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90. BUT EVERYTHING'S
ALWAYS ON FIRE!
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:2010_0515_rama_4_and_sathorn_22a.JPG
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96. What are your goals for
tomorrow?
Are these aligned to
outcomes?
https://pixabay.com/en/checklist-goals-box-notebook-pen-2589418/
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97. Pick 1 or 2 or 3.
https://pixabay.com/en/checklist-goals-box-notebook-pen-2589418/
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98. Pick 1 or 2 or 3.
Ignore The Rest.
(until your next scheduled time for
being interrupted)
https://pixabay.com/en/checklist-goals-box-notebook-pen-2589418/
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99. No, really...
Ignore The Rest
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ru%C3%ADdo_Noise_041113GFDL.JPG
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104. MAKE TIME FOR INTERRUPTIONS
â DAILY standup
â WEEKLY planning
â WEEKLY retrospective
â Email at the end of each day
If you have a predictable cadence, people will be willing
to wait and less likely to interrupt you.
@azolyak
105. If you do this as a team
... align the top things
⊠align on a cadence
⊠inspect and adapt
@azolyak
106. If you do this as a team
... align the top things
⊠align on a cadence
⊠inspect and adapt
you will have way more time to focus!
@azolyak
118. waffle.io
Project Management
Reimagined for Development
Teams
Waffle.io helps developers to stay
focused and quickly regain context
after interruptions.
Adam Zolyak
Developer Advocate
adam@waffle.io
@azolyak