How Do You Maintain Your Work Focus? 153
chowsapal asks: "I've recently switched from another line of work into computer programming, where I work as a contractor. I'm making more money than I need, and more than I'm used to even working 20 or 25 hours a week. I'd like to work more, and rake in even more money, but sometimes it's hard to stay focused for more than 5 or 6 hours at a time. What do other programmers do to motivate themselves? Do you work a specific set of hours? In a specific location? Are there types of breaks that you find really increase productivity? Does diet and/or coffee consumption make or break the deal? Do you end up working late at night for the quiet? I realize that on some level you just need to suck it up and put in the time, or stop worrying about it and enjoy your time off. However, the question stands: How do you work best outside an office environment?"
Two Options (Score:5, Insightful)
Two - Trust your feelings, Luke. If you're already "making more" than you need, and you can't get motivated to make more, then don't. Go out and have some fun.
Re: How Do You Maintain Your Work Focus? (Score:2, Insightful)
How do I motivate myself to work? Usually I just visualize my family and I living under a bridge and carrying a handwritten "will program for food" sign.
Priorities? (Score:5, Insightful)
Perhaps your motivation problem is that you seem to have no goals outside of the numbers on your bank accounts.
Add a bit of Diversity (Score:5, Insightful)
I find that when spending too much time looking at the same code, it starts becoming 'vague' and I feel as if I'm in a fugue. It's akin to the same thing as writing a story or some e-mail and thinking that you've misspelled the words 'it' or 'and'. It may very well be correct, but it looks foreign and you try to fix something that isn't broken. At that point, it's time for a mental break.
I actually tend to take at least three breaks a day for about five to ten minutes each. The first two, I read Slashdot; usually around 10:00am and the other right before lunchtime. I don't eat out often, but I do pick up lunch and then around 4:00pm, I check out the latest 'IT' curiosity posted on The Daily WTF http://www.thedailywtf.com/ [thedailywtf.com]. I also check Slashdot again right before I leave so I don't miss some of the few gems posted here.
A lot of IT shops have their eye on Web browsing, but they usually won't pay mind to it unless you're not producing or you have a tendency to frequent sites that raise an eyebrow or two (hint: pr0n sites tend to fall in that category). I do like to visit sites geared towards developers, such as GotDotNet http://www.gotdotnet.com/ [gotdotnet.com], CodeProject http://www.codeproject.com/ [codeproject.com], CodeGuru http://www.codeguru.com/ [codeguru.com] and the latest "up and coming" Krugle http://www.krugle.com/ [krugle.com] code search engine. Sometimes visiting those sites will give a tidbit or two that is useful; you may run across some code or solution to a problem that interests you. Also, you may end up learning something that you'll run into in the future. (Coders tend to re-invent the wheel if they don't have the code handy; however, if the code is there, they tend to add spinning rims to it.)
Adding a bit of diversity to the routine helps keep you on the edge and refreshed to approach a problem in a new light.
A little stress is a good thing (Score:4, Insightful)
Of course, the answer is self-discipline, time management, etc., but there are a lot of factors that affect how successful I am at that. Here's what I'm watching properly during the times that things are really working well:
* Personal physical factors: I avoid caffeine, because it keeps me "awake" but destroys my focus. If I'm really focused, I simply won't get sleepy anyway. I avoid all alcohol during the week, and avoid sugary things at night, because those both affect my sleep patterns and sharpness in the morning. Proper sleep also makes a huge difference to focus... if I only slept 3-4 hours, even if I'm wide awake things just don't seem to get done.
* Project factors: an interesting project that uses my knowledge/skills but also brings in some new things is much easier to work on. Boring projects (just solving the same old problems again in a slightly different way), overly tedious/frustrating projects (like cleaning up someone else's mess or working with really buggy APIs), or overly daunting projects (working with a new language, in a domain only vaguely understood)... that's when I end up bouncing off the work into random other activities like a stone skipping off water.
* Work organization: I try to stop periodically to make priorities lists and to-do lists, and to break down tasks into smaller and smaller sections. It's important for scheduling purposes already, but the mental benefits are also huge. You can hit lots of little goals to keep you going, like "just get this query finished, send that email, then I can break for lunch".
* Breaks: get up and walk around when you're stuck. Don't just sit in your chair (or take a break by going off to check
Now I just need to follow my own rules *all* the time....
Concentration is a rare commodity (Score:2, Insightful)
Citrus Drop (Score:2, Insightful)
Does diet and/or coffee consumption make or break the deal?
Go to Kroger and get the store brand of Mountain Dew. It's called Citrus Drop. Whenever I need to concentrate, I chug one. The resulting burning feeling in my head from the caffeine and the fresh carbonation greatly improves my focus for the next hour.
However, don't do this right before a gaming session. You'll just get jittery.
Here's what works for me (Score:5, Insightful)
- Get enough sleep, and get up early (heresy for a geek, I know).
- Have some breakfast and then *dive right into work while you're still fresh*. Don't squander these precious hours on Slashdot and Reddit! Do 3-4 hours of work until your morning high is gone.
- Then stop and do some very intensive physical exercise for 45-75 minutes. By "very intensive", I'm talking about the frothin-at-the-mouth, panting, totally-drenched-in-sweat kind of stuff. My chosen exercise is to split firewood with a maul, at the fastest pace my body can handle.
- After going all out on the exercise, take a shower.
- Eat lunch and enjoy a bit of leisure (read Slashdot or whatever). At this point, the post-morning-high crash is long gone, but it should have been replaced by a feeling of relaxation (because of exercise -> shower -> lunch), but still with adequate energy because the exercise revved your body up. I find that if I don't do the (very intensive) exercise, I tend to be very sleepy from the time the morning high wears off until the end of the work day.
- Do another 3-4 hours of work. You'll probably find it easier to concentrate on boring work during this period of the day, since you'll be mellowed by the exercise -> shower -> meal.
- If 6-8 hours is enough, you're now done for the day. However, I sometimes find the very most boring work most tolerable between 8 p.m. and 10 p.m., when my body is winding down toward sleep. Just don't do anything so absorbing or intellectually taxing that it wakes you back up, or you'll be up really late.
I know these suggestions are not realistic for most people, but for those who work from home, they're feasible. That mid-day exercise provides a huge boost to my ability to concentrate.
Are you sure you're making more than you need? (Score:5, Insightful)
Ok, maybe you are. But I doubt it. First, a contracting career is not secure. That's why they pay you a premium: because you constantly take the risk of being fired without another gig lined up.
Secondly, how much are you saving? Emergency funds? Retirement nest egg? Do you have health insurance, 401/k, etc? Contractors usually don't.
Just because you're more than covering all your bills now doesn't mean you're making enough. If you don't have enough cash or readily liquidatable assets to cover 6 months expenses, I wouldn't be 'not worried', I'd be absolutely panicking.
My serious advice: see a financial planner, figure out how much you should be saving. Get a second contracting job to fill the other 20 hours of a full work week. You should be able to more easily focus when you have totally different projects.
And as far as motivation goes, shipping quality products to customers who appreciate it is more than enough motivation. I love seeing a hearing a customer tell me he's happy with the product, even though it cost him around $300k.
exercise, it's not just for jocks. (Score:2, Insightful)
For me it is a case of sleeping well and eating healthy and being fit. A decent cardio and weights session 3+ times a week helps with the sleeping, gives a decent appetite and helps keeps the mood up.
I agree with those before who say take a break when you've lost focus. There have been more than a couple of times I've stared at a monitor for over an hour trying to force myself to see the bug, only to wander away for five minutes and come back to see the flaw straight away.
Avoid places or situations where there are lots of distractions. There have also been times when I've been totally immersed in the code only to have somebody interrupt and to lose my place. It's not the ten seconds it takes to answer a question; it's the lost time it takes to get back in that mind-zone. (Little trick about working at home, have an agreed upon signal of some kind to tell people that it's absolutely not okay to interrupt you in anyway, I wear a baseball cap.)
Oh, and coffee to maintain focus. Proven to aid short term memory and concentration (Or so they said in my introductory psychology paper, it may have been sponsored by nestle though).
Re:Two Options (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Temperature Control (Score:1, Insightful)
Your body won't limit blood to the brain in an office setting; that doesn't happen until you are about to die.