A few months ago I directed my team (size 12, co-located) to turn off Slack and Email from 9am to Noon every day. From noon to 2 we decided to prioritize being

A few months ago I directed my team (size 12, co-located) to turn off Slack and Email from 9am to Noon every day. From noon to 2 we decided to prioritize being “reachable” for ad-hoc meetings and whatnot, and then we go back to normal “use your discretion” work for the rest of the day. We ran this as a trial for one month, then evaluated the results. In the end, productivity (as measured in completed story points) was up about 50%. I’m glad, because the change was popular and would have been difficult to reverse if it had gone the other way. This doesn’t fit every situation. We’re part of a very global company, and responding quickly to a ping from a team on the other side of the world can mean the difference between solving a problem today or having to wait another 24 hours. But for my immediate team this is easier. Because we work together in an office they can just, you know, say something, if they have some urgent reason to break focus time. So, not universally applicable, but I think many teams could benefit from prioritizing focused work in this way.