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The problem I have with getting rid of distractions is that it comes at a cost of isolation. The distraction topic comes up often where I work. People have bec

The problem I have with getting rid of distractions is that it comes at a cost of isolation. The distraction topic comes up often where I work. People have become more aware and respectful of distractions. Earbuds and Skype status are key indicators. But letting people know you are diving into something is even more important. It is largely a success. I haven't offended any coworkers and it does not prevent meaningful work getting done or stop someone from getting their questions answered. But then again this also means you might go half a day without any meaningful interactions with someone. Be careful what you wish for. Skype has been a huge help (but also a huge distraction itself). It is helpful to have a coworker Skype "I have a question can you come by" and be able to respond "ok give me 10 minutes". It gives you that valuable time to be able to leave something in a state where you can return and pick up.

late2part 11y ago
Richard Hamming described this well, memorialized here: https://www.cs.virginia.edu/~robins/YouAndYourResearch.html https://www.cs.virginia.edu/~robins/YouAndYourResearch.html "Another trait, it took me a while to notice. I noticed the following facts about people who work with the door open or the door closed. I notice that if you have the door to your office closed, you get more work done today and tomorrow, and you are more productive than most. But 10 years later somehow you don't know quite know what problems are worth working on; all the hard work you do is sort of tangential in importance. He who works with the door open gets all kinds of interruptions, but he also occasionally gets clues as to what the world is and what might be important. Now I cannot prove the cause and effect sequence because you might say, ``The closed door is symbolic of a closed mind.'' I don't know. But I can say there is a pretty good correlation between those who work with the doors open and those who ultimately do important things, although people who work with doors closed often work harder. Somehow they seem to work on slightly the wrong thing - not much, but enough that they miss fame."
- Silhouette 11y ago
  That does seem to assume that someone has their door either always open or always closed, which obviously isn't necessarily true.
Silhouette 11y ago
I can't help noticing that we used to solve this with a universal convention called an office door. If your door was closed, you were asking not to be interrupted unless it was essential. If your door was open, you were available to work with others if they needed you. I've seen a lot of arguments over the years about the pros and cons of open office spaces, and how generally greater awareness of what's happening and informal, ad-hoc contributions make the team as a whole more productive even if they aren't optimal for team members in isolation. Some of them do seem plausible. However, I came to the conclusion that a lot of those arguments are unrealistic not long after first going freelance. I was then working at my own office, with my own equipment and software, on my own timescales, and with the ability to simply turn phones and e-mail off when I need to concentrate. It is amazing how much more productive that made me, compared to my previous job in an open plan office. I often do things in a day that I would have expected to take a week or more in the kind of high-distraction, open environments I worked in as an employee. It's true that you need to communicate effectively if you have some separation, and that means making some changes if you're working remotely most of the time. It's also true that it's useful to get together face-to-face and catch up with colleagues from time to time, particularly if a project is moving rapidly. However, neither of those things requires full-time availability and being permanently subject to interruption. If get-together time is consolidated and planned in advance, I find it's still plenty fast and effective enough for probably 9 things out of 10 that aren't done on-line or with pre-planned calls anyway, and the other time someone just goes to where someone else is at shorter notice if it looks like it will be useful to be in the same place for a while. So, for productivity, I personally rate having a few days a month set aside for face-to-face time but the rest mostly free of distractions far higher than having a few hours of useful work every day but also getting interrupted by multiple calls and such throughout that time.

late2part 11y ago

Richard Hamming described this well, memorialized here: https://www.cs.virginia.edu/~robins/YouAndYourResearch.html https://www.cs.virginia.edu/~robins/YouAndYourResearch.html "Another trait, it took me a while to notice. I noticed the following facts about people who work with the door open or the door closed. I notice that if you have the door to your office closed, you get more work done today and tomorrow, and you are more productive than most. But 10 years later somehow you don't know quite know what problems are worth working on; all the hard work you do is sort of tangential in importance. He who works with the door open gets all kinds of interruptions, but he also occasionally gets clues as to what the world is and what might be important. Now I cannot prove the cause and effect sequence because you might say, ``The closed door is symbolic of a closed mind.'' I don't know. But I can say there is a pretty good correlation between those who work with the doors open and those who ultimately do important things, although people who work with doors closed often work harder. Somehow they seem to work on slightly the wrong thing - not much, but enough that they miss fame."

Silhouette 11y ago
That does seem to assume that someone has their door either always open or always closed, which obviously isn't necessarily true.

Silhouette 11y ago

I can't help noticing that we used to solve this with a universal convention called an office door. If your door was closed, you were asking not to be interrupted unless it was essential. If your door was open, you were available to work with others if they needed you. I've seen a lot of arguments over the years about the pros and cons of open office spaces, and how generally greater awareness of what's happening and informal, ad-hoc contributions make the team as a whole more productive even if they aren't optimal for team members in isolation. Some of them do seem plausible. However, I came to the conclusion that a lot of those arguments are unrealistic not long after first going freelance. I was then working at my own office, with my own equipment and software, on my own timescales, and with the ability to simply turn phones and e-mail off when I need to concentrate. It is amazing how much more productive that made me, compared to my previous job in an open plan office. I often do things in a day that I would have expected to take a week or more in the kind of high-distraction, open environments I worked in as an employee. It's true that you need to communicate effectively if you have some separation, and that means making some changes if you're working remotely most of the time. It's also true that it's useful to get together face-to-face and catch up with colleagues from time to time, particularly if a project is moving rapidly. However, neither of those things requires full-time availability and being permanently subject to interruption. If get-together time is consolidated and planned in advance, I find it's still plenty fast and effective enough for probably 9 things out of 10 that aren't done on-line or with pre-planned calls anyway, and the other time someone just goes to where someone else is at shorter notice if it looks like it will be useful to be in the same place for a while. So, for productivity, I personally rate having a few days a month set aside for face-to-face time but the rest mostly free of distractions far higher than having a few hours of useful work every day but also getting interrupted by multiple calls and such throughout that time.