Comments on: Are You a Zen Coder or Distraction-Junkie?

By: Coding Dojo Day 1 | Invoke Interests

Coding Dojo Day 1 | Invoke Interests — Thu, 02 Apr 2015 07:58:08 +0000

[…] of a syllabus and the curriculum. I started working on them after the lecture. I had fun coding in zen mode for some time, going through the course material on my own pace and doing the quizzes and […]

By: Foobar

Foobar — Fri, 06 Jun 2014 09:30:12 +0000

and average managers always value distraction junkie coder higher than zen coder, because first one multitasks and is more social [and is always first to blame others]

By: Himanshu Mishra

Himanshu Mishra — Tue, 15 Jan 2013 15:31:16 +0000

Great article ! …. thanks :)

By: Amir

Amir — Wed, 16 May 2012 10:59:19 +0000

“However, I almost immediately run into a big problem: When I was compiling or deploying something, I automatically opened one or more of the following: Email client, Facebook, news reader, news sites. That’s a bad habit. It’s hard to break. It ruins my goal of clean focus.”
This is how I got to your article!!! Some nice things grow from bad habits

By: bluszcz

bluszcz — Tue, 08 May 2012 14:50:29 +0000

“””PS: Know anyone who is checking email 50 times a day, and has 12 different notifications jumping in his face all the time? Send him this article. He will thank you later.”””

I knew. And I sent it to this person. It was my boss. He said thank you and fired me.

;)

By: Sunday Selection 2012-03-11 « The ByteBaker

Sunday Selection 2012-03-11 « The ByteBaker — Sun, 11 Mar 2012 17:52:05 +0000

[…] Are you a Zen coder or a distraction junkie? It’s been a while since I’ve worked on a project where “my code’s been compiling” has been a valid excuse for not working. But now that I am on such a project, it’s important that those mini-breaks don’t turn into longer breaks. […]

By: Umair Jabbar

Umair Jabbar — Mon, 27 Feb 2012 10:19:35 +0000

Very nicely written.

I am glad that my natural habit of stretching more than once on a day at work is not something that I should try and suppress :)

By: Jiri Novotny

Jiri Novotny — Sun, 26 Feb 2012 08:25:57 +0000

My latest post about Hidden Procrastination:

http://www.dextronet.com/blog/2012/02/hidden-procrastination/

By: sigs

sigs — Fri, 24 Feb 2012 04:25:43 +0000

It’s a balancing act. Also, multitasking is a very personal thing. I might be your distraction junkie coder; and sometimes I really wish I could pull myself together more forcefully and just Get Shit Done 100% of some time interval…

alas, that’s not how it goes. If I want, I can focus, but the result isn’t much better. I might get trapped in a loop of not finding the (later) obvious solution and just walk in circles. That’s no fun either.

On the other hand, I often notice that after a break – be it walking a round or opening facebook, reading the updates and then closing it – my brain has done the work for me. I think of it as distancing and returning. Work on it and push it as far as it goes; when it gets stuck, take some distance, return and see if it looks different now.

Obviously if it’s badly stuck (for, say, days) I get frustrated and blame it on distractions and my inability to focus. But at the same time, I know I’m not just turning a crank. I mean, 95% of the time I am, obviously, but the remaining 5% is the art and the craft, the part that justifies them having me doing it and not the 18-year-old fresh off high school.

My two cents.

By: Ivan

Ivan — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 18:27:35 +0000

For what is work Jiri, I don’t know anything about you at all. But I do have a brain and can reason things, so I don’t need to trust you to be able to learn from what you wrote :)

It really drove a point home, and I thank you for the lots of productivity I’m about to start gaining.

Tabs BE-GONE!

Also, I’ve wanted to gain some fitness for a long time now, so I’m gonna start doing some push-ups during my micro-breaks, and perhaps do a run during a larger break, so my body thanks you too :)