Many jobs in technology, especially those that involve writing code, take concentration and focus. It\u2019s often called being \u201cin the zone.\u201d For me, it feels like I\u2019m inside a bubble where time goes at a different pace than the rest of the world. In fact, the rest of the world seems to disappear when I\u2019m in the zone\u2026until I\u2019m interrupted, that is.<\/p>\n
Studies<\/a> have been done to measure how long it takes developers to become productive again after being interrupted, and 15 to 20 minutes is usually reported. One study<\/a> from the University of California Irvine found it took an average of 23 minutes for managers to get back on task, but they became accustomed to interruptions and worked harder to make it up.<\/p>\n Distractions can come in many forms. In today\u2019s world of open offices, it\u2019s hard to concentrate. It\u2019s difficult to tune out all the conversations. The worst is when a co-worker puts a conference call on speakerphone. Why do that? The idea behind these environments is that workers will collaborate more, but there is nowhere to hide when you need to be left alone to get some work done. These floorplans encourage chit-chat and \u201cdrive-by\u201d requests, and some developers resort to headphones to tune out the noise.<\/p>\n Even sanctioned work tools like company email can be distractions when you are writing code or solving a performance problem. Author Tim Ferriss<\/a> recommends spending just one hour per week on Monday morning to read email in his book The 4-Hour Workweek<\/a>. In my opinion, that schedule is not going to work for most people in any IT role or those who don\u2019t want to miss messages from managers. Maybe it makes sense to limit checking work email messages to twice a day if one hour a week is not frequent enough.<\/p>\n