It is a well-known fact that programmers, like other knowledge workers, actively fight the effects of interruptions during their work day.
The detrimental effects of interruptions can be attributed to the cognitive requirements and data overload which programmers face. To perform complex cognitive tasks, developers must be able to delve into profound logical thoughts. That is why interruptions and distractions destroy their ability to reach that state.
What’s the Interruption Metric?
- It’s a calculation of the number of interruptions suffered by the programmer during his/her working day.
What does it tell me about my work behavior?
- It reflects the level of fragmentation of your workday.
- Higher interruption values show higher levels of internal or external distractions and typically affect the development’s performance.
How can I reduce the quantity of interruptions?
- Try to stop distractions before they happen.
- Switch off distractions: close your email, put your phone on mute, don’t check your social network accounts. If you are at a noisy workplace, put on your headphones.
- Check your typical focus curves and schedule your meetings outside the intervals when you have your peak performance.
How is it calculated?
- It is estimated from the number of times that the focus graph goes from positive to zero during each workday. That’s not casual, when that happens, we’re pretty sure that your concentration/focus reached the lowest possible point at that particular coding session. And that’s something bad (sometimes).