If I cannot refocus immediately after interruption - I know I'm doing something wrong. This can be a sign that code needs to be reorganized. I've seen a number

If I cannot refocus immediately after interruption - I know I'm doing something wrong. This can be a sign that code needs to be reorganized. I've seen a number of really good coders in their 20's who are admirable for brilliant insights. However, they fall into this pattern of thinking of themselves as invincible, and they take on tasks where they are doing the "heavy lifting" of remembering tons of details all at once. If you can lift 400 X's by hand, then you could easily lift 4000 X's with the right tool. One of my bosses kept a stack, explicitly, and used that to keep track of his excursions into sub and side tasks. I used to say that being a good programmer was being a professional forgetter as much as a professional memorizer. Basically, you should be constantly reorganizing your code as you go, so that there's no danger that forgetting a detail will result in an error. In a way, it's like people who work on high platforms who take precautions so that one drop or one slip won't result in injury or fatality. In other words, work smarter, not harder.