#04 Avoid Distractions And Occasional Interruptions
Headphones - Hiding In Plain Sight
If you don’t have the luxury of a secret hideaway or a private office with a closed door and “Do Not
Disturb” sign (or some other agreed office convention) then the magic device that
you need is a pair of headphones – hopefully a set that doesn’t make you look like
an air traffic controller.
Headphones allow you to “kill two birds with one stone”, to coin an English phrase. By wearing a pair of headphones you can avoid both everyday distractions and occasional unwanted interruptions from people.
Avoiding Occasional Interruptions
I avoid occasional interruptions from people by pretending to be on a call. I even move the microphone on my headset into place and pretend to speak. People see that you are “busy” and walk away. Sweet!
Avoiding Distractions
I tried the headphones trick for a while without actually listening to anything but realised that I was still breaking my concentration with the distractions of tuning into the various conversations of colleagues happening nearby. That’s really useful when you’re co-located with your dev team but not so good if you are hiding away in the hope of getting something done.
I found some background piano and guitar music on YouTube. At time of writing it had 21,975,479 views. (Most of those are mine. 😊) It stops me tuning into conversations but doesn’t stop me working. I guess favourite music with lyrics might start me singing – not good for anyone’s productivity and more likely to get something thrown at me or cause it to start it raining.
Thank you for liking this page.
Tim Simpson
#OldDogNewTrick