[ludbb]

My productivity increases so much when I shutdown chat apps I can only wish people responsible for setting them up at companies would stop for a minute and read this. Only the fact that the app is running is enough to reduce my output since I'll switch to it regularly no matter what.

[brianwawok]

This is all funny because 3 years ago it was email overload, use chat instead. Now we are up to chat overload. With no tools we have meeting overload.

Maybe we just need some kind of flat "only talk to people 2 hours a day" rule for developers that transcends communication method.

[smacktoward]

The problem is that the tools we invent to solve the old problem create new problems that are worse.

- At least meetings had a defined start and end time. With email you're expected to be "always on"

- At least emails can be dealt with asynchronously, so you can focus on work for a while and then circle back and deal with email. With chat you've got to be at least semi-engaged with the tool at all times

[simoncion]

> Maybe we just need some kind of flat "only talk to people 2 hours a day" rule for developers...

I'm not sure if it was Brooks or if it was another one of the guys who were doing investigation into engineer/programmer productivity at the time that discovered something along the lines of: "The most productive workplaces allow and encourage their engineers to switch off their desk telephones whenever the engineer requires it.". [0]

Maybe in a hundred years we will have learned that lesson for good.

[0] Remember, this was back in the 1980s or so, so you got desk phones, intra-office mail, or walking down to talk to a guy.

[atemerev]

One 15 minutes meeting spoils 1 hour of development time.

One 2 hour meeting spoils 3-4 hours of development time.

[mcherm]

And LACK of the right 15 minute meeting wastes months of development time as we build the wrong thing and then throw it out.

The trick is knowing which piece of communication is the one that will actually matter. I have no idea how to solve this one.

[AnimalMuppet]

Experience helps. But there is no magic answer that fixes the problem.

[hrktb]

Won't it be faster if you disable the notifications at the OS level? If your output is more important than instant communication with your peers, it should be OK to not be notified. Otherwise you'll just have to accept your destiny.