## Taking a break
-Taking a break is more than just flipping over to another application on our computer. My tendency while taking a break is to start checking my email or open up one of my various chat programs to catch up on what happened since I last opened it (usually since the last time I took a break). But this really isn't taking a break as it is trying to multi-task at my desk. Real breaks involve getting up from the computer. It doesn't have to be a large break; taking a break can be as simple as moving away from your work-space into another room or area. But you you need to move away from your computer to get a "context switch", where your mind can feel like it isn't in the same place as it was earlier. Context Switching lets your mind completely switch out and flush out the context of the area you're in. It allows your mind to focus on new context and new input.
+Taking a break is more than just flipping over to another application on our computer. My tendency while taking a break is to start checking my email or open up one of my various chat programs to catch up on what happened since I last opened it (usually since the last time I took a break). This really isn't taking a break as it is trying to multi-task at my desk. Real breaks involve getting up from the computer. It doesn't have to be a large break; taking a break can be as simple as moving away from your work-space into another room or area. You need to move away from your computer to get a "Context Switch", where your mind can feel like it isn't in the same place as it was earlier. Context Switching lets your mind completely switch out and flush out the context of the area you're in. It allows your mind to focus on new context and new input.
This can be tricky in an office where the underlying expectation is that one must be at their work space in order to be productive. And there are only so many "bio breaks" (breaks that are related to matters of human biology, also known as using the restroom) someone can take in such situations. How can you give yourself the context switch your mind needs in such situations?
-You might be able to achieve the same sort of context-switch by looking away from the computer display for a few moments. It's a good idea to look away from the screen every now-and-again to give your eyes a rest. Giving your mind a rest while you give your eyes a rest can give you the incentive to do both.
+You might be able to achieve the same sort of Context Switch by looking away from the computer display for a few moments. It's a good idea to look away from the screen every now-and-again to give your eyes a rest. Giving your mind a rest while you give your eyes a rest can give you the incentive to do both.
-Changing your sitting / standing arrangement can also be a good context switch where you give yourself a context-switch around your physical workspace. It can be as simple as just standing up and stretching from time to time, or as complex as raising or lowering your standing desk. Telling yourself that there are two contexts around your desk: sitting and standing at the desk, may be enough to give yourself the context switch and rest that your mind needs.
+Changing your sitting / standing arrangement can also be a good Context Switch where you allow yourself a change in your physical workspace. It can be as simple as just standing up and stretching from time to time, or as complex as raising or lowering your standing desk. Telling yourself that there are two contexts around your desk: sitting and standing at the desk, may be enough to give yourself the Context Switch and rest that your mind needs.
-If your workplace has a culture that allows you to step away from your desk and move around then that would be a great context switch. Adding a physical component (as much as you are able) to your context switch can help your mind to relax and recharge.
+If your workplace has a culture that allows you to step away from your desk and move around then that would be a great Context Switch. Adding a physical component (as much as you are able) to your Context Switch can help your mind to relax and recharge.
You'll have to experiment with a few of these to determine what works. At the bare minimum you'll want your mind to feel as though it doesn't have to be on all the time. You want your mind to have cool-down periods between coding sessions so it can flush the remnants of that session from your mental "cache" and into longer-term storage. Then when you get back to your coding session you'll be more likely to remember what was going on.
-You may also find when you go away from the computer for a while that you'll forget what you were previously doing. That's OK too. What I would recommend is keeping a journal or log of what you were thinking in as much detail as you need. Either write them on a physical piece of paper or use a text file to keep these notes so you'll have enough clues to allow you to pick up where you left off.
+You may also find when you go away from the computer for a while that you'll forget what you were previously doing. That's OK. What I would recommend is keeping a journal or log of what you were thinking in as much detail as you need. Either write it on a physical piece of paper or use a text file to keep these notes so you'll have enough clues to allow you to pick up where you left off.
## Productive thinking
-Next we need to realize that productivity is not a constant. There are days where we will find ourselves generating remarkable levels of code and code quality and days where we'll be lucky if we can string together a coherent string of words to add to a commit message. We have varying levels of energy and mental focus available to us per day. It's up to us to be mindful of these levels and understand what our productivity might look like for the day.
+Next, we need to realize that productivity is not a constant. There are days where we will find ourselves generating remarkable levels of code and code quality and days where we'll be lucky if we can string together a coherent string of words for a code comment. We have varying levels of energy and mental focus available to us per day. It's up to us to be mindful of these levels and understand what our productivity might look like for the day.
Understanding these swings of productivity can allow us to better gauge whether or not the day will allow us to generate the code that needs to be generated, but there's a level below that I think is important.
-We put a lot of emphasis in our day on completion and hitting deadlines. This emphasis can lead to us creating strong attachments to completion and deadlines. Sometimes this is warranted because of external factors (the "critical-path" of the project require us to get this done by a certain date and time). But many of our deadlines are internal deadlines that we've set for ourselves. We set a goal that we will be this productive by the end of the day. The unstated condition of this internal productivity deadline is that we'll feel guilty and ashamed if we miss the goal. We'll fee like we're not measuring up to our expectations and wonder if we're worthy of the task at hand. We'll feel like our day has been wasted and wonder if we're capable of doing anything at all.
+We put a lot of emphasis in our day on completion and hitting deadlines. This emphasis can cause us to create strong attachments to completion and deadlines. Sometimes this is warranted because of external factors (the "critical-path" of the project require us to get this done by a certain date and time). But many of our deadlines are internal deadlines that we've set for ourselves. We set a goal that we will be this productive by the end of the day. The unstated condition of this internal productivity deadline is that we'll feel guilty and ashamed if we miss the goal. We'll fee like we're not measuring up to our expectations and wonder if we're worthy of the task at hand. We'll feel like our day has been wasted and wonder if we're capable of doing anything at all.
-It's better for us to remove deadlines wherever possible. We won't be able to get rid of the external ones where folks are waiting on our contributions (though we may want to renegotiate those if they're not hard deadlines) but we can let go of the desire to meet arbitrary productivity levels and arbitrary deadlines.
+It's better for us to remove deadlines wherever possible. We won't be able to get rid of the external ones where folks are waiting on our contributions (though it may be possible to renegotiate those if they're not hard deadlines) but we can let go of the desire to meet arbitrary productivity levels and arbitrary deadlines.
-Arbitrary goals may work for some tasks. Some examples of this are game programming contests that only run for a week which makes teams focus on the critical pieces of the design and implementation of their game in order to release it in the allotted time. These can be a fun exercise for focusing your efforts, but they also incur a lot of pressure before the contest's deadline. If you continually feel guilty and unworthy because you can't seem to meet the goals you set for yourself then you'll want to reconsider whether it's useful to use them at all.
+Arbitrary goals may work for some tasks. Some examples of this are game programming contests that only run for a week which makes teams focus on the critical pieces of the design and implementation of their game in order to release it in the allotted time. These can be a fun exercise for focusing your efforts, but they also incur a lot of stress and pressure before the contest's deadline. If you continually feel guilty and unworthy because you can't seem to meet the goals you set for yourself then you should reconsider whether it's useful to use them at all.
One trick that has helped me is creating small spaces of concentrated focus. That trick is described in the next section.
## Containers
-We should replace soft deadlines (deadlines that aren't externally imposed on us) with a commitment to work on a particular project for a given length of time. One trick I've found useful is the idea of a "*timed focus container*". When I do a timed focus container I start by choosing what will be focused on during the container. Once the task is chosen I set a timer at my work-space and then focus on that task with my full attention for the remainder of the time on the timer. I've had the best luck with using 10 minutes but a session as small as 5 minutes or as large as 30 minutes can be useful. The work selected at the beginning of the container is the only thing I work on, and I do my best to make sure there are no interruptions (whether internal or external) until the container is complete. When the work is done I wrap up the task with whatever I've completed, note whatever the next actions are for that task on my next actions list, and then take a quick break (usually around 5 minutes) before starting the next container. The next container can continue with the same task, or I can select another task, but the idea is simple: I only focus on the task in front of me for the allotted time. When my mind tries to wander or I get the temptation to "just check this one thing" I pause for a moment and determine if it is indeed important. Most of the time it isn't important and I can make a quick note to check on it whenever I finish the container.
+We should replace soft deadlines (deadlines that aren't externally imposed on us) with a commitment to work on a particular project for a given length of time. One trick I've found useful is the idea of a "timed focus container". When I do a timed focus container I start by choosing what will be focused on during the container. Once the task is chosen I set a timer at my work-space and then focus on that task with my full attention for the remainder of the time on the timer. I've had the best luck with using 10 minutes but a session as small as 5 minutes or as large as 30 minutes can be useful. The work selected at the beginning of the container is the only thing I work on, and I do my best to make sure there are no interruptions (whether internal or external) until the container is complete. When the work is done I wrap up the task with whatever I've completed, note whatever the next actions are for that task on my next actions list, and then take a quick break (usually around 5 minutes) before starting the next container. The next container can be a continuation of the same task, or I can select another task, but the idea is simple: I only focus on the task in front of me for the allotted time. When my mind tries to wander or I get the temptation to "just check this one thing" I pause for a moment and determine if it is indeed important. Most of the time it isn't important and I can make a quick note to check on it whenever I finish the container.
We can use these containers to overcome our desires to multitask. We only focus on one thing at a time. We can also use containers to just let the session go where it wants to take us. When we start the container we don't start off with trying to finish a particular task; instead we see where the session takes us. There is no judgment of the quality of the work in the container, just the expectation that we will work for the duration of the container. There's no expectation for what work we will accomplish, just that we will work on it until the container is finished. If we complete the task before the container ends then that's awesome! We can then figure out what the task for the next container will be. If the container ends and we're still in the middle of a task we can then write down where we left off and what steps we took in order to get there. We can then work on something else, or we can take a quick break and then come back to the work with a focus container.
-The underlying concept of the timed focus container is to let ourselves agree to work within the confines of the container without judgment for the work done or the progress made. When the work is done we close out the container by reflecting on what we did and where we need to go. We give ourselves permission to not worry about our progress in the moment, but we do allow ourselves moments where we can review our progress and note how far our journey has progressed. We allow ourselves the freedom to just work in the in the moment without fear of judgment, reprisal, or self-recrimination. The container is a gift of uninterrupted work that we give ourselves (or at least as uninterrupted as we can manage). We make this the best gift we can give by closing out other programs, turning off notifications, and giving this task the full attention it deserves.
+The underlying concept of the timed focus container is to let ourselves agree to work within the confines of the container without judgment either for the work done or the progress made. When the work is done we close out the container by reflecting on what we did and where we need to go. We give ourselves permission to not worry about our progress in the moment, but we do allow ourselves moments where we can review our progress and note how far our journey has progressed. We allow ourselves the freedom to just work in the in the moment without fear of judgment, reprisal, or self-recrimination. The container is a gift of uninterrupted work that we give ourselves (or at least as uninterrupted as we can manage). We make this the best gift we can give by closing out other programs, turning off notifications, and giving this task the full attention it deserves.
-I invite you to incorporate this practice of doing focused containers every day. I think they are an excellent way to give ourselves permission to focus on one thing at a time without the need or worry for what will get accomplished during that container. It allows us to focus on one thing at a time and do it to the best of our abilities. The limitation of working on one thing at a time without thinking about the other bits of work that we have to do can be liberating and I hope that working with these containers will give you a sense of what fully-focused work can feel like.
+I invite you to incorporate this practice of doing focused containers every day. I think they are an excellent way to give ourselves permission to focus on one thing at a time without the need or worry for what will get accomplished during that container. It allows us to focus on one thing at a time and do it to the best of our abilities. The limitation of working on one thing at a time without thinking about the other bits of work that we have to do can be liberating, and I hope that working with these containers will give you a sense of what fully-focused work can feel like.
-This whole book was created and edited using focus containers. I took about 10 minutes per container to write the initial draft, and later I used 10 minute containers to edit the book. Sometimes they bled over into 15 or 20 minute containers but that was because I was so engaged with the material that I didn't want to stop. This was in sharp contrast with how I've normally approached tasks. Usually I need to get over the initial hurdle of allocating a half-hour or more to the task. This means that I need to feel like I have enough control over my schedule in order to clear out that space. Since I don't tend to feel like I have that level of control over my schedule I tend to procrastinate on the task. With a focus container I think to myself "I can just take 10 minutes to work on this" which is just enough time for my mind to not feel like it should be doing something else. With each container I gradually saw the progress of this book unfold. That then fed back into my desire to keep working on this book, which helped lower the mental friction to keep doing containers to work on the book.
+This whole book was created and edited using focus containers. I took about 10 minutes per container to write the initial draft, and later I used 10 minute containers to edit the book. Sometimes they bled over into 15 or 20 minute containers but that was because I was so engaged with the material that I didn't want to stop. This was in sharp contrast with how I've normally approached tasks. Usually I need to get over the initial hurdle of allocating a half-hour or more to the task. This means that I need to feel like I have enough control over my schedule in order to clear out that space. Since I don't tend to feel like I have that level of control over my schedule I tend to procrastinate on the task. With a focus container I think to myself "I can just take 10 minutes to work on this" which is just enough time for my mind to not feel like it should be doing something else. With each container I gradually saw the progress of this book unfold. That then fed back into my desire to keep working on this book, which helped lower the mental friction to keep doing the containers to work on the book. It created a positive feedback-loop where I looked forward to the next time I could do the container and work on the book.
## Distractions
projects / themediocreprogrammer.git / commitdiff