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This is almost disturbingly accurate to how I feel in the "zone" as well. A consequence of this is it's hard to have a healthy life as a self-employed programmer. If I want the app I'm working on finished faster (and I do or I'll run out of money), I must stay in the zone as long as possible. Which means I must ignore people as long as possible and put off eating/exercising as long as possible as well.
http://archive.oreilly.com/pub/a/oreilly/news/zenclavier_129...
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> It comes and goes, with very little control on your behalf. As anecdata makes the data, here's mine - you have a lot of control of it. If you can control your environment (audio, light, temperature, food, exercise, communication, interaction, ...), you can get in the zone too just by virtue of almost exclusively focusing on some type of work you get in the zone for in the first place. Live by code, die by code.
No amount of control of my environment will put me in the zone when I'm working on boring code. Crud framework? I'll be reading HN while going through the motions. Code review? Time for some stimulating music (though not too stimulating, I do need to pay attention to the code review). But give me something interesting - a real challenge - and I'm able to get into the zone, the hours flying by like they were minutes.…
adderall
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> It comes and goes, with very little control on your behalf. As anecdata makes the data, here's mine - you have a lot of control of it. If you can control your environment (audio, light, temperature, food, exercise, communication, interaction, ...), you can get in the zone too just by virtue of almost exclusively focusing on some type of work you get in the zone for in the first place. Live by code, die by code.
Controlling the environment makes me more productive than I'm normally, but definitely doesn't automatically put me "in the zone".
Speaking of The Zone: I often see programmers on HN talk about building mental castles of their programs, but I feel like I don't really code the same way. Instead, my thinking seems more "functional". For a given problem, I can often make out the faint outline of an optimal solution, but there's a lot of cruft and misplaced bits in the way. Most of my work involves mentally simulating the consequences of different o…
On an average day, there will be 4 hours of calls spread an hour or less apart for the first half of the day, with the potential for surprise calls for the rest of the day. The irony is that a lot of these calls are about why things aren't getting done.
The surprise calls are the worst. Even if I might have 2 hours of uninterupted time at the end of a day (when I am most tired and frustrated) it is impossible to get focused when there is always a looming threat of interruption. It's gotten so bad that I only get anything done late at night or over weekends, but then I am tired during weekdays and resentful that I had to throw away my freetime in order to move a project forward.
How does "being in the zone" compare to being in the state of "flow" [0]? Are those synonymous? [0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flow_(psychology)
Also: "Achieving flow is often colloquially referred to as being in the zone."
So, yes, they are synonymous. :-)
I haven't been in the zone for months. It's mostly general dissatisfaction with my job, but it's gotten worse of late. On an average day, there will be 4 hours of calls spread an hour or less apart for the first half of the day, with the potential for surprise calls for the rest of the day. The irony is that a lot of these calls are about why things aren't getting done. The surprise calls are the worst. Even if I mig…
1) Block out 3 hours in the morning and 3 in the afternoon in your calendar as busy, marked private, at slightly different times each day. If asked you can be honest, many times people will not ask and simply avoid booking.
2) Leave your least productive time of day open for 90 minutes of meetings - for me this was post lunch.
3) Always reply and ask for an agenda so you can be sure you're necessary (it's a constructive way of making the requester think twice about whether they really need a meeting).
4) Often suggest a new time that is only 30 minutes long rather than the default hour.
5) Decline politely if you are not specifically necessary (Thanks for the invite Peter, appreciate being kept informed but I don't think you need me for this and I have a conflict - no need to reschedule for me).
But mainly just look for a way to leave. That company is heading down the tubes.