Rubberband Wound

I’m easily distracted, easily sidetracked. Whether its Bloglines, chat, sports scores, or the conversations of those around me (eavesdropper!), it’s been the bane of my existence and something I’ve struggled to deal withfor quite some time. In fact, I probably shouldn’t be stopping to write about it now, but here I am. In my recent efforts to be more productive (primarily because I want more time to develop in Rails) I’ve found a few tricks that are working for me so far.

Disable Email Notifications

Not hearing an email alert every time I get something has helped me to focus immensely. I get so many messages that are not high priority that it can be very easy to let them drag me down. Now I just go check my email a few times a day - if something truly important comes along somebody else will most likely know about it as well, and let me know to check.

Turn Off Chat

Actually, chat is still on, but I mark myself as busy unless nothing important is happening and I really am free, something that doesn’t happen too often. Since it’s a work chat network, people aren’t on it for idle chit-chat, so any messages that do come through are either something that needs to be dealt with promptly or something I can answer quickly without losing my groove.

Turn Off The Phone

I put my cell phone on silent and set it face down away from me on the desk. If it crosses my mind to check, I will, but since I’m looking at the screens I don’t usually see think about it. Urgent work-related calls won’t come through the cell phone anyway.

Block Out The World

It bothers people when you don’t hear them, but noise-cancelling or in-ear headphones may be one of the best things I have at work to increase my productivity. I’ve been listening to more techno lately when I work, and with some good headphones and a decent volume level, it’s pretty easy to lose myself in my work. In a perfect world I’d get an alert on my screen when my phone is being paged, because I’ve missed more than a few pages and had rubber bands shot at me from across the office as a result. Still, I think the boost in productivity that I get is worth it.

Close Unnecessary Pages

Honestly, I don’t need to have Bloglines open, or my fantasy baseball scores. I don’t need to check prices on Froogle or anything else. They just serve to suck me in and before long half my day is gone. Finally, I made myself close them, and I leave them closed until I’ve stopped being productive and I feel like I need a recharge, assuming I feel that I’ve been working hard and long enough.

Getting Better

So that’s what I’ve tried - it works for me, maybe it’ll work for you. Once I get working, I can keep going indefinitely. It’s getting going that’s always the hardest part.