Return to the trail after failures

Question

Over the past few weeks, it seems like I was interrupted by maintenance tasks from old projects quite a bit, apart from training. I feel that I have lost all my impulses in my current project. It's hard to even start coding because I'm not sure what I am doing and what I was thinking before the interruption.

What tips or techniques will help you make it easier to restart after an interruption that takes you a couple of hours or days away from your current project?

Answer 1

• Take a moment to write notes for yourself (on paper right in front of you) about the project that you put before you go and choose another.

• Still messed up? Headphones are turned on, music is turned on, loud enough to drown your surroundings without text.

• Really messed up? Go to lunch, take a walk, go out into the air and do not return until the break has disappeared.

• Is it really messed up? No longer accept interruptions. Be very firm about this with colleagues and managers. If you need to risk yourself to get the material, they must be able to evaluate that at the end of the day, effectiveness is effective for you.

Answer 2

Some of my methods include

• Documentation. It makes you think about your project. If this is not easy to describe, it is probably not elegant enough, but
• Static Code Analysis - FxCop , Lint , Cyclomatic Complexity , Security Analyzers. Now is the right time to step back from your code and check out best practices.
• Unit tests. This again makes you think about the code and how to improve it.

Answer 3

I am often interrupted by phone calls, quotes for sale on more technical issues, project managers ask me about the possibilities and time limits, and junior developers ask for help in solving problems.

I found the following, although not as ideal, as being able to close the office door and stay alone for several hours in a row to be most effective:

• Install the Firefox LeechBlock add-on and add the most frequently used websites to it. You can set a time limit (i.e. 5 minutes every two hours) so that you do not completely close yourself.

• Wear headphones when working in the cab or when busy.

• Put your phone on do not disturb.

• Disconnect your mail client and open it only at a certain time (i.e. 11am, 3pm).

• Ask staff to see you only at certain times as a courtesy (i.e. 11am, 3pm), but say that you will still be available for emergencies.

• Group as many similar tasks as possible (i.e., complete maintenance tasks from 4:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. every day) and leave the rest of the day to work on the project.

This is not perfect, but it is the best solution I have found.

Answer 4

In essence, you are trying to return to a productive “state” after interruption, and the key is to find things that trigger this productive state for you. Although I am still studying the subject, you can find useful answers in books on NLP (neuro-linguistic programming).

Answer 5

• Find a small task for its implementation in the first place (within 1-6 hours, if you do not have an interruption). During the formulation of what you need, you slightly recall the state of the project. You can also view requirements from a client or project manager.
• Solve this problem, but do not rush - you can spend much more time than planned. Inspect the code for a deeper reminder.
• As for me after that, I recall most of the things.

If you have a problem to continue working after the above steps, this may signal some problems in the project, such as ugly design, lack of documentation, poor understanding of the project’s purpose, or something else. And now is the time to take a look at the project. You may notice problems that are difficult to catch when you are deep inside the project.

Of course, it is useful for a few days, but not for a few hours.

Answer 6

Yes, good luck with that! (I don't think there are good ways to interrupt, so as not to be complete interruptions.)

Answer 7

Honestly, IMHO just sits down and does it. Complaining now is just a distraction from the start. If you want to explore how to improve this problem in the future, do it a few days after you return the baton again.