4 ms·

People having conversations around me are my biggest productivity killer. Sadly I'm in a small open office environment where it is culturally acceptable to have

by gs7 12y ago

People having conversations around me are my biggest productivity killer. Sadly I'm in a small open office environment where it is culturally acceptable to have personal conversations with your coworkers at any time of the day, as if we were in a break room. Our manager is one of the worst offenders. None of my colleagues are developers so they're not really bothered by it as much, but I have a very hard time being productive and writing good code when I can't hear my own thoughts. It's very frustrating.

cr4zy 12y ago
Earplugs work for me.
gdubs 12y ago
I'm a fan of mynoise.net. Sometimes you want total silence, but a wide mix of quality noise can help focus the mind.
babby 12y ago
The easiest and most most acceptable solution to that is earbuds/earphones. Put music on, put rain sounds on. If someone comes up to you to talk about non-work stuff decide whether it's a good time to take a quick break or to breifly explain; I'm busy, man. I've got the same layout at work and I'm even the go-to tech support guy, but when I want to get shit done I'm not afraid to tell anyone to stop bothering me.
- mkopinsky 12y ago
  I've found success at times with the pomodoro method, and the pomodairo tool. I have a ticking clock on my desktop, and if someone comes to bother me, I can easily point to it and say, "Can this wait another 12 minutes?"
- nnain 12y ago
  A note of caution when using the, "I'm busy, man". It borders on appearing rude, even if you didn't mean to be. One of my colleagues was a recipient of that dialogue and his working relationship with the other person almost ended at that point.
ryandvm 12y ago
I've suffered from this a great deal. I have completely soured on the open office concept - at least if you want me to do anything that requires focus. Headphones help, but unless you're a complete sociopath, it's impossible to not dedicate some amount of mental resources to human interrupt handling.

by gs7 12y ago

cr4zy 12y ago

Earplugs work for me.

gdubs 12y ago

I'm a fan of mynoise.net. Sometimes you want total silence, but a wide mix of quality noise can help focus the mind.

babby 12y ago

The easiest and most most acceptable solution to that is earbuds/earphones. Put music on, put rain sounds on. If someone comes up to you to talk about non-work stuff decide whether it's a good time to take a quick break or to breifly explain; I'm busy, man. I've got the same layout at work and I'm even the go-to tech support guy, but when I want to get shit done I'm not afraid to tell anyone to stop bothering me.

mkopinsky 12y ago
I've found success at times with the pomodoro method, and the pomodairo tool. I have a ticking clock on my desktop, and if someone comes to bother me, I can easily point to it and say, "Can this wait another 12 minutes?"
nnain 12y ago
A note of caution when using the, "I'm busy, man". It borders on appearing rude, even if you didn't mean to be. One of my colleagues was a recipient of that dialogue and his working relationship with the other person almost ended at that point.

ryandvm 12y ago

I've suffered from this a great deal. I have completely soured on the open office concept - at least if you want me to do anything that requires focus. Headphones help, but unless you're a complete sociopath, it's impossible to not dedicate some amount of mental resources to human interrupt handling.