[greenyoda]

"Divide your time into 60 – 120 minutes blocks of work. Focus 100% percent in these blocks of time. Then take a 20-30 minute break and do something else entirely."

This might be usable advice for someone who works at home on his own business, but for those of us who work in office environments, there are sources of distraction that are much more difficult to control than the urge to read news: meetings, your boss walking into your office, colleagues who interrupt you with urgent requests for help, etc. (If you're a developer who also manages a team, multiply this by ten.) The only time I can get an hour of uninterrupted work is after everyone goes home. So I think a more useful question is: how can you get back into a productive state more quickly after the inevitable interruption occurs?

Or, to go back to Zen: how can you lose the attachment you have to the flow of uninterrupted work? When it happens, it feels really good, but when it doesn't happen, it would be better not to get too frustrated about it and be able to move on.

That said, I thought the article's advice to consciously choose stretching or brief meditation over e-mail or news to be something worth trying.

[beza1e1]

In a larger office, you are usually not paid for being productive. Responding quickly to mails from your boss is probably more effective than focused coding. So don't worry that much.

For the occasional productivity burst: schedule yourself a fake meeting, pick a lonesome place and your laptop, disconnect from instant messengers etc.

[nlawalker]

Bingo. The problem of office interruptions reduces down to priorities and having a boss that understands your work.

Interruptions don't have to be inevitable - there is almost always something you can do to cut yourself off. For me, I could book myself solo into a conference room for 90 minutes, block the time on my calendar, turn off my IM and mail toast, put earphones in and work.

If the concern is that you can't do this - that you'll get in trouble or won't be meeting expectations - either your priorities are out of order relative to what your boss/organization thinks they should be, or your boss/organization isn't convinced that cutting yourself off to do solitary work adds any value. One could argue that a really good boss would understand it already, but we don't always get really good bosses - if your boss isn't already convinced and you don't want to do the work to convince them, I suppose the answer is to either put up with it or leave.

[yabai]

This is a great point. In most larger office settings, you are expected to wear many hats and respond quickly to issues that arise throughout the day.

When I need to really focus on something, I leave my cubicle and sneak away with a laptop to an empty conference room. This is the only way for me to work uninterrupted.

[SatvikBeri]

I have a specific ritual for getting into the zone and one for getting out of the zone. My ritual for getting into a focused state is something like:

Move back from the computer, touch my index fingers to my thumbs, close my eyes, count down from 10, and say out loud (or write) "I am now working on (project)". It takes ~30 seconds and it works pretty well for me.

[BadCookie]

I go through the mental process of telling myself what I am working on now, but I like the idea of adding a physical ritual to go along with it. I'll try it! Thank you for sharing.

What is your ritual for getting out of the zone, out of curiosity?

[ismarc]

I have a similar (but longer) way of getting into the zone and obviously my own way of getting out of it. However, none of it is about what you actually do. It's about the "ritual", the only time you do it is in preparation for the work and after enough repetitions it snaps you straight in. For snapping out, any time I spend a significant (or feels like it) amount of time trying to solve an issue and can't, I save everything, hit compile and get up from my desk. I prefer to step outside, relax for like 10-15 minutes not doing anything work related except maybe chatting about work with folks, and then go back. Getting up, away from the computer and letting the brain relax is what I consider the most important part. Sitting in the same place where you had the problem never let me relax enough to get through it without lots of effort/time. Getting away from it, up out of the weeds and when I sit down next time the problem becomes trivial.

[SatvikBeri]

I close my eyes, count up from 1 to 5, and say (in my head) "I am now coming out of alpha, feeling wide awake and better than before."