Most interruptions are unplanned, so be ready.
Stuff happens. Usually it only slows you down, but sometimes it takes longer. Sometimes it’s more serious too. That can be messy, and hopefully not too painful either.
I had a major interruption last week; hence no post. It did remind me of that someone once wrote: make your work interruptible. I think it was Tim Ottinger (and a quick check confirms this.)
This post will be more raw as I’m typing with my good, right hand, so everything is slower. No review and re-edits: just straight typing. My left hand is recovering from said accident. No pain, just annoyance about not being able to do some things, in case you’re wondering.
While Tim and Perry were writing about coding, I ended up thinking of the bigger picture while sitting around waiting. Most of our work should be done in a way that is interruptible. We never get the time Jewish we had at the times we wish, so by planning to interrupt it we should be able to structure it more effectively: we can pause, or switch focus, and later pick it up again with minimal issue.
Prepare for interruptions
Accidents happen. You plan to be doing something, but an accident intercedes, and you end up spending your time elsewhere. Maybe the interruption is for days. This is when interruptible work patterns keep you going.
This time around I’ve found these habits useful.
I use Evernote to store ideas and details, and it lives on both mobile and laptop. This lets me jot things down whenever. Together with calendar on my mobile I can store ideas, and also schedule reminders as needed.
A physical notebook for longer thinking and getting things out of the head, so I can think of new things. Things here get moved to other formats as needed.
Work on the app is done in small, thin slices, plus current tasks/issues are recorded too. This lets me slow the pace, or pause the work as required.
Forced relaxation should not be a catastrophe.
This post is part of a project pulling together my materials and ideas about Teaching Team Collaboration: the Human-Side of Software Development for software development to students.
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The ideas above are from my book 101+ Ideas to Improve Team Collaboration, which covers all of these little things that students can do to improve their collaboration. Also available via Kindle.