7 ms·

> you don't necessarily realize that some people do need deep work, and prioritize your quick satisfaction to other's focus Surely there must be ways to balanc

> you don't necessarily realize that some people do need deep work, and prioritize your quick satisfaction to other's focus Surely there must be ways to balance these things? When you want to ask someone a question it shouldn’t be too hard to infer whether it’s a good time to do that now or you should wait (if it is, well it’s exactly a very hard skill to learn if you put in some effort)

quickthrower2 3y ago
You need it to be a good time for all 6 people
- Broken_Hippo 3y ago
  No, you don't. You need to communicate it effectively to 6 people and be open enough so they aren't waiting for the 15 minutes you claim to have free. IN general, if folks have a question and can easily see that you don't want to be interrupted right then, they'll wait a bit.
fzzzy 3y ago
Yes. It is easy to balance these things. Ask the question in an asynchronous medium.
dotnet00 3y ago
I feel like that's exactly what email or pinging someone in a group chat is for, or at least that's how I prefer it. If I'm deeply focused on something else, I'll just ignore the notification, if I'm available I'll respond. Bonus points for just posting it to a team group chat or CC-ing everyone involved so someone else might be able to handle it.
- spike021 3y ago
  That's no different from being in an office though. If someone taps me on the shoulder and says they need a few minutes of my time looking over problematic code or whatever, I can say "sure just give me about 15 minutes to finish off this X/Y/Z" When someone is relegated to doing this over Slack/Teams/whatever, the other person might have their notifications muted and rarely check for new ones. So it could end up being several hours of waiting. Just because someone checks in with you IRL and asks if you have time to help with a question doesn't mean you need to be interrupted from "flow".
  - dotnet00 3y ago
    A notification is a quick glance in the corner of the screen, a tap on the shoulder is turning around to look at and focus on the person talking to you. The latter is a full context switch to me. It will often leave me having to try to remind myself what I was just thinking and having to rebuild that thought.
damontal 3y ago
I used to work in an open office and one guy had a light mounted to his cube. When it was red it meant do not disturb. Green meant he was available for whatever.

quickthrower2 3y ago

You need it to be a good time for all 6 people

Broken_Hippo 3y ago
No, you don't. You need to communicate it effectively to 6 people and be open enough so they aren't waiting for the 15 minutes you claim to have free. IN general, if folks have a question and can easily see that you don't want to be interrupted right then, they'll wait a bit.

fzzzy 3y ago

Yes. It is easy to balance these things. Ask the question in an asynchronous medium.

dotnet00 3y ago

I feel like that's exactly what email or pinging someone in a group chat is for, or at least that's how I prefer it. If I'm deeply focused on something else, I'll just ignore the notification, if I'm available I'll respond. Bonus points for just posting it to a team group chat or CC-ing everyone involved so someone else might be able to handle it.

spike021 3y ago
That's no different from being in an office though. If someone taps me on the shoulder and says they need a few minutes of my time looking over problematic code or whatever, I can say "sure just give me about 15 minutes to finish off this X/Y/Z" When someone is relegated to doing this over Slack/Teams/whatever, the other person might have their notifications muted and rarely check for new ones. So it could end up being several hours of waiting. Just because someone checks in with you IRL and asks if you have time to help with a question doesn't mean you need to be interrupted from "flow".
- dotnet00 3y ago
  A notification is a quick glance in the corner of the screen, a tap on the shoulder is turning around to look at and focus on the person talking to you. The latter is a full context switch to me. It will often leave me having to try to remind myself what I was just thinking and having to rebuild that thought.

damontal 3y ago

I used to work in an open office and one guy had a light mounted to his cube. When it was red it meant do not disturb. Green meant he was available for whatever.