Avoiding Interruptions
A work colleague of mine linked me an article today that is a quick read but is very insightful on how interruptions impact a developer's day. You can read it here: Why Developers Hate Being Interrupted.
As a result, it got me thinking about a few related articles I had come across in my career. I started referencing a book I had recently read called Leading Snowflakes which discusses the Manager's Schedule / Maker's Schedule.
It was funny because halfway through the originally referenced blog, I realized that the author had referenced the maker's schedule!
Two points discussed in this article are worth mentioning that can help a team reduce the amount of interruptions that occur.
The first is having a standing rule about when interruptions are acceptable. The Tomorrow Lab team came up with the "Headphone Rule". If a developer has his/her headphones on, do not interrupt him/her. If the same developer has headphones over only one ear, then that person is okay to be interrupted. I tend to do this in conjunction with my own interpretation of the Pomodoro Technique, in which I have a 30-minute "focus" playlist in Spotify.
The second is to start blocking off periods to account for the maker's schedule. I am going to start blocking off sections of my afternoons on set days. The author in the article mentions this as a "timetable or quota of time when everybody has to stay away from developers," with the exception being when a production level emergency arises.
Thanks for letting me interrupt your day!
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