I'm trying to figure out the best way to get into the "groove" and maintain it. What are some of the methods and techniques which you use to reach the peak of productivity? Here's some things I've brainstormed so far: -Not procrastinating on tasks that need to get done -Being able to stay focused on the task at hand -Eliminate the influence of distractions -Using effective time management techniques to schedule activities -review performance and find ways to improve; Identify time sinks. -Get enough sleep; wake up early. -exercise regularly -Follow through on your plans. After you decide, don't think or rethink! Just do it! -maintain motivation. This happens when you follow through on your goals. -Don't let silly fears get in the way of getting what you want -A 'Groove' seems to have an element of impetus and momentum behind it. Start the day by building that impetus. -Don't sweat too much over being a perfectionist. Example: Turn off the internal editor when you're writing. Questionables: -Coffee? it can be a source for distractions though. Getting up to refill coffee cup, bathroom breaks, etc. Does it break the work rhythm? -Taking breaks. The mind needs to rest, but when? If you're in the middle of something and getting stuff done, should you interrupt that with a break?

This might be interesting to you.

Quote: Original post by slayemin
-Eliminate the influence of distractions

Well, the point above is my number one problem for not getting stuff done sometimes. That's why in just over a week, I'll be sending my wife and kids off to Florida while I stay home and finally get my head wrapped around DirectX.

John

Quote: Original post by slayemin
-Coffee? it can be a source for distractions though. Getting up to refill coffee cup, bathroom breaks, etc. Does it break the work rhythm?

Yes and No. Sometimes, if your break is quick enough, you can still be in "the zone" while you brew. If it takes too long, it will distract you. I noticed that if you're working on a project with someone else and you take a group break/lunch, it helps to stay in the zone because you will end up talking about the project during your break. Washroom breaks should not be done in groups :).

Quote: -Taking breaks. The mind needs to rest, but when? If you're in the middle of something and getting stuff done, should you interrupt that with a break?

Your body will tell you when it's time for a break. Either with a full bladder or when your tired. Once you get going it's hard to stop, especially when you are on a roll and are enjoying what you are doing.

I just finished writing this 3 page essay. Even though it's a rough draft, I thought I'd share it to get some input. Maybe someone can relate :)
And yeah, it's probably crap undeserving of being read.

Defeating Procrastination to Find the "Groove"

Can you remember a time when you were so absorbed in your work that you didn't realize that time was passing quickly? Do you remember how good it felt to be so productive and to get things done? Perhaps your focus on the task at hand had laser-like precision and everything fell into place as if the stars were aligned. When we find the mystical 'groove' mindset, we become a juggernaut of accomplishment. Sports athletes have talked about entering this state of mind where they are completely engrossed in the moment. As an avid Chess player, I can relate with the same mindset causing me to dominate at my game with little expended mental effort.

On the other hand, we've all had times when we've been dreading a project and force ourselves to do something necessary but undesirable. Each moment of that experience seems to stretch on to infinity and time couldn't go any slower. The experience is mentally painful because of the anguish we cause ourselves through such forced labor. It should be no surprise then that our natural tendency towards starting such projects is to delay it as long as possible via procrastination.

Yet, some of the projects we work on are anguishing to initialize, but eventually we get enraptured in the work and soon find ourselves in the productive "Groove". Have you ever avoided cleaning a room, but when you finally start, you end up cleaning the house because you're in the mood? With software development projects, much like house cleaning, we may be overwhelmed by the complexity and size of it and procrastinate. Sometimes, writing a few classes or lines of code can be as excruciating as pulling teeth. Other times, when we're in a productive mind set, code seems to write itself and compile fluidly. When this burst of productivity happens to developers, a weeks worth of work can be completed in a day. Therefore, it behooves a manager to promote the acquisition of this productive mindset and its maintenance.

Does that mean the manager should stand over the shoulders of employees and make sure that they aren't slacking off? What happens when the manager goes away? What happens if the developer is self employed and there are no managers which they have to hold themselves accountable to? Unfortunately, the drive to accomplish must come from within a person and that takes work, introspection and personal development. Instead of a manager acting as a boss or supervisor, they should put themselves into the position of a coach. Their role is to encourage employees to develop their own methods for working efficiently on whatever goals they have.

When it comes to goals, we can all create to-do lists of things we wish to get done. These unaccomplished goals are merely words on paper, and much like ideas, they are worth a dime a dozen. To bring our goals into actuality, we need to invest work towards their accomplishment. I've tried to find all sorts of short cuts to avoid doing the work while still reaching the goal, but it's about as impossibly futile as trying to get to the top of a mountain without climbing it (Imagine helicopters don't exist). The perceived unpleasantness of work can be a strong cause for us to put it off, thus procrastination ensues.

Procrastination is an intentional distracting of ourselves to avoid doing a particular task. The list of distractions can be endless if we leave its creation up to the devices of our hedonistic minds. The internal thought process goes something like this: "Oh, I've got this long seven page paper to write. I really don't feel like doing it. It's going to take forever and I'm not very interested in it. I'll go make some coffee before I start." Ten minutes later, with coffee in hand: "Oh, I wonder if I have any email? Nope! Well, social networking sites like MySpace and Facebook also have messaging. I better check those too! After all, I need to get all this stuff out of the way so it's not on my mind. While I'm at it, I should see if there are any new videos on YouTube." Soon enough, our little distraction begins to snowball into a monolith of wasted time and nothing gets done. Yet, the little voice in our minds can make the reasoning very compelling.

I am all too familiar with this routine process. I've fallen into the trap of giving that little voice in the back of my mind an audience. It's so easy to do that everyone succumbs to it on occasion. Totaled up over time, the consequences of submitting to my instant gratifications has costed me losses in future business, potential accomplishments and personal relationships. Like a failed New Year's resolution, I've tried in vain to turn a new leaf. Perhaps some of my attempts at self change were insincere or my goals have been unrealistic. But why the motivation for change?

Consider the following premises: No person of accomplishment is accomplished due to their inaction. All great people are accomplished people and vice versa. Fortune favors those who take action. Therefore, if anyone wants to be great, they need to take action. Procrastination (inaction) is the enemy of action and thus, fortune. Since I want to be accomplished and great, by this logic I have a motivating need to defeat my habit of procrastination.

My attempts at managing myself have followed the scientific model for management. First, I investigated other self management techniques which other software developers have used to stay focused. Then I used them to see if they work for me.

The first experiment was to create a desktop background that had plain text which said "Don't be stupid. Do your work." It was supposed to be a reminder to ourselves that we were about to distract ourselves and stop being productive. It seemed to work for others. After using it for a week, I concluded that it was completely ineffective for me because I ignored it. At best, it was a depressing reminder that I didn't have the discipline to prevent my own distractions. I had to try something else.

The second experiment I did was to create a weekly time schedule. It broke down each day of the week into hours and defined tasks which I should be doing during that time. I planned the optimum amount of sleep I needed, scheduled meals, study time, exercise time, play time, social commitments, and gave myself hobby time (See attachment). Unfortunately, my desired schedule has me waking up at 5:30 in the morning and going out to exercise. This is a polar opposite from my current late night schedule and it would require a reverse of my sleeping habits to implement. In addition, it would require an enormous amount of self discipline to maintain such a regimented daily schedule. After unsuccessfully trying to reverse sleeping schedules, I realized I couldn't abide by my desired schedule just yet.

As if the first and second experiment weren't enough of a clue towards what doesn't work, I decided that the third experiment would be to create a more aggressive computer desktop background with motivating quotes and big red arrows pointing towards a prioritized to-do list. The result was that I would occasionally open up the to-do list, look at some of the listed items, make some mental notes, and then proceed to procrastinate by distraction. However, all was not lost: A benefit of the to-do list is that it shows me what I still need to do, so I will keep using it in the future.

The fourth experiment in progress is to set a schedule for when something needs to be done, break the task into time boxes of 30 to 60 minutes, remove all distractions, and just do it. The hardest part with managing procrastination is to get started and to stay focused. In creating this planned course of action, I read an informative article on Procrastination by Patricia Stewart to understand the mechanisms for procrastination (P.Stewart 2007). The concept of "Time Boxing" came from an article by Dave Cheong, who also wrote an article on methods to stay focused on work (See attachments). Combining the working elements from previously failed experiments with the additional insights from the articles seems to be working better.

Simply being consciously aware of my tendency to get distracted and silencing that voice is like resisting the abuse of the snooze button on an alarm clock. The cognitive reward for submitting to distraction is higher than the long term sense of pleasure derived from work. However, I've found that over time the sense of successful accomplishment of a project contributes to self esteem and self actualization whereas the instantly gratifying distractions serve to erode those same senses of self worth. The solution to snooze button abuse is to jump out of bed the very first time the alarm clock rings. Continuing along that same mind set, start work on a project the moment you think about it and actively work to stay focused.

Since developers are doomed to eventually becoming managers and leaders, it behooves us all to be competent at managing ourselves. If a manager can't even manage themselves, how can they hope to effectively manage others? Since the disciplined manager is a master of self management, they can be competent at spotting self management weaknesses in subordinates and take effective action to minimize the negative effects of it. For example, if employees are being distracted by email or the Internet, the coaching manager could intervene with the employees to find ways to increase productivity.

When the causes for project procrastination decrease, goals are successfully achieved and everyone gets satisfaction out of work. With repeated successes, motivation increases and it becomes easier to continue repeating work with the long term effect of increased self worth. The long term effect is a sustained level of high productivity and accomplishment, with which naturally follows fortune.

Quote: Original post by borngamer

Quote: Original post by slayemin
-Eliminate the influence of distractions

Well, the point above is my number one problem for not getting stuff done sometimes. That's why in just over a week, I'll be sending my wife and kids off to Florida while I stay home and finally get my head wrapped around DirectX.

John

John,

It may be cheaper to take a laptop to a local coffee shop for a few hours :) Ideally, you'd probably want a repeatable process in an environment conducive to work. Also, uninstall distractions from your laptop (Games, wireless network cards, etc). Let us know how that works out for ya.

Nothing stimulates productivity like the sense of impending doom.

Quote: Original post by slayemin

Quote: Original post by borngamer

Quote: Original post by slayemin
-Eliminate the influence of distractions

Well, the point above is my number one problem for not getting stuff done sometimes. That's why in just over a week, I'll be sending my wife and kids off to Florida while I stay home and finally get my head wrapped around DirectX.

John

John,

It may be cheaper to take a laptop to a local coffee shop for a few hours :) Ideally, you'd probably want a repeatable process in an environment conducive to work. Also, uninstall distractions from your laptop (Games, wireless network cards, etc). Let us know how that works out for ya.

i have a cheap and cheerful laptop for this very reason

pc is for dev and games etc. but when i know im falling behind it gets copied over to the laptop which has no games etc and i sit in a library (where i have no membership therefore no access to internet) for its full opening time and get stuff done. works even better when im with someone doing the same thing, since there seems to be a slight buzz at showing off new features to each other

also when i visit my girlfriend at her uni each weekend i can leave her to do her dissertation without distractions and instead of sitting on her consoles or watching her tv i break out the laptop and get on with my own work, since when you work full-time its a crime wasting a weekend of potential productivity

i like the long article posted above. my way of doing things is my 5-useful-things-a-day slot.

as a reward for not smoking that day (given up 8 weeks now) not smoking that day removes a slot, but thatll go back soon

a slot can be tidying the house or taking out the bins or mending a leak or something, but coding fills two slots, this means even when i procrastinate its well-structured and productive procrastination!!

before i made up this method id had 2 months of no work done and was feeling pretty angry at myself, this week alone ive created a space invaders clone and a platformer game just to fill up slots, as well as having the housework up to date when i needed a break from heavy coding which i wouldve had to do at some stage anyway (so instead of procrastinating about housework AND coding etc it becomes a prefereable alternative at least once during the dev cycle)

once i hit 5 slots, even if its only 6pm i dont feel guilty, i know i can sit back and play games and browse the internet etc because ive earned the rest of that day free to arse around with

oh addendum: if i hit the zone and end up coding from when i arrive home until when i go to sleep that slot system is void, because ive done that much coding and it takes priority

[Edited by - Mantrid on March 4, 2009 4:51:57 AM]

Quote: Original post by kseh
Nothing stimulates productivity like the sense of impending doom.

Sergei Prokofiev, a Russian composer, wrote some of his best works when Stalin held a gun to his head (metaphorically speaking, he probably had a lackey do it).