Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Ask HN: How do you cope with being interupted?

news.ycombinator.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

71–80 of 105 posts

Re: Ask HN: How do you cope with being interupted?

#71

Post by sovietmudkipz »

I don’t do them well, but I’m practicing. I remember reading advice for students to study in a distracting environment so it doesn’t throw them for the real thing. Interesting as it signifies human adaption.

TLDR; I utilize TDD, the Pomodoro time technique, and I have crafted an internal story that I deal with distraction well.

I love my wife and want her to feel free to bug me anytime. I have set boundaries where something ideally should be a level more important to warrant an interruption, but I love her so she can interrupt whenever. I don’t want to be a curmudgeon about it, so I choose not to be.

I do let her know that when I am deep in thought, it takes me some dozens of seconds to come back to reality. She gives me some time and is patient enough to repeat what she said.

I use tests and notes as a way of exporting my deep thought into world artifacts. Developing testing as a skill is actually rather difficult as it brings to the surface software design, which I think many novice programmers miss. Once you have it, you can rerun your test/suite to reorient where you were once the distraction is complete.

Notes let me write down nagging or otherwise unrelated to task thoughts. We live in an age of distraction and we must adapt. I write down/tally when I have an impulse to distract myself to remind myself to stay on task.

Finally, I use the pomodoro time technique for time management. I usually do 30 minutes on, 10 minutes break. It is very freeing to know there will be time in the very near future to handle distractions and I personally find myself in focus mode faster using the technique.

And that’s what I’ve done to try and adapt. I used to be someone who told myself I don’t handle distractions well and therefore requires huge blocks of uninterrupted time, but it didn’t work out for me and how I want to be. YMMV.

Hope this helps OP!

Re: Ask HN: How do you cope with being interupted?

#72

Post by SkipperCat »

I schedule meetings with just myself. I'll put descriptions on them so co-workers know not to bother me. I'll also disable slack sometimes.

I don't do this very often because I don't want to abuse it and I also want to be available for my co-workers. But at work, one need's balance and boundaries and it's OK to set them yourself.

Re: Ask HN: How do you cope with being interupted?

#74

Post by Ensorceled »

andi999 wrote: post #59
adontz wrote: post #16

Therapy. For real. In some cultures it's not welcome, but it affects personal development enormously. It's the best investment in your life. Not that you'll solve all your problems, however you'll learn to analyze your problems and learn to find root causes to fight with, instead of symptoms. Being here and now is not easy. You may be anxious, tired, may have some mild disorders, obsessions you don't even know about.

What type of therapy are you suggesting? Any type?

A good therapist will figure out what works for you and diagnosis any underlying conditions as well. You'll experiment with, for example, cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT), acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT), dialectical behavioural therapy (DBT) or just general mindfulness.

Re: Ask HN: How do you cope with being interupted?

#75

Post by Ensorceled »

artemonster wrote: post #23
adontz wrote: post #16

Therapy. For real. In some cultures it's not welcome, but it affects personal development enormously. It's the best investment in your life. Not that you'll solve all your problems, however you'll learn to analyze your problems and learn to find root causes to fight with, instead of symptoms. Being here and now is not easy. You may be anxious, tired, may have some mild disorders, obsessions you don't even know about.

Therapy is not a silver bullet. While it can be helpful, I found it incredibly awful and frustrating when therapist tries to describe and justify things that are happening to you by trying to tie something from your past. You can always do that with any person and any circumstance. Client: „I am annoyed by the interuruptions“ Therapist: „Maybe you dont like loosing control because your mother havent given you a titty…

You had a bad therapist. I had a bad dentist once. I found a new dentist.

I don't go to forums talking about how all dentists are terrible because they refuse to listen when you tell them a tooth is not fully frozen.

Re: Ask HN: How do you cope with being interupted?

#76

Post by thobiasse »

genezeta wrote: post #34

I think you got two different things mixed there. One is being interrupted , the other is being distracted . Being interrupted is external, while being distracted is internal. So which one is it you're having problems with? Personally, I have come to accept that there will be interruptions. Colleagues asking for help, someone asking a question, some boss calling an unexpected meeting, my mother phoning or whatever. S…

Thank you! The problem is more being interrupted than distracted.

I like the the 5-10 seconds unload time. Like some others said, it will help me write down where I was!

Re: Ask HN: How do you cope with being interupted?

#77

Post by jwr »

I don't cope with being interrupted. In fact, it affects me so much that even if there is a possibility of being interrupted (home, kids, family, etc), I can't focus, because I fear the moment when that house of cards will inevitably fall down in my head.

Also interested in advice from others.

Re: Ask HN: How do you cope with being interupted?

#78

Post by Ensorceled »

faichai wrote: post #30
artemonster wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Therapy is not a silver bullet. While it can be helpful, I found it incredibly awful and frustrating when therapist tries to describe and justify things that are happening to you by trying to tie something from your past. You can always do that with any person and any circumstance. Client: „I am annoyed by the interuruptions“ Therapist: „Maybe you dont like loosing control because your mother havent given you a titty…

My experience with CBT was that it eschewed chasing down causal issues from your past, and rather worked more towards understanding how you’ve ended up, and to give you the tools to counteract your automatic thoughts and behaviours. I found it incredibly helpful, what I thought were my issues turned out to be symptoms of a more foundational issue and understanding that gave great insight into why I do things the way…

Depends on what you need from therapy. I had childhood trauma that I went to therapy for, a lot of stuff WAS connected to that.

But now I just say "Yeah, I don't feel like it's connected" and we move on.

CBT and similar techniques are the way to go for most people.

Re: Ask HN: How do you cope with being interupted?

#79

Post by kerneloftruth »

adontz wrote: post #16

Therapy. For real. In some cultures it's not welcome, but it affects personal development enormously. It's the best investment in your life. Not that you'll solve all your problems, however you'll learn to analyze your problems and learn to find root causes to fight with, instead of symptoms. Being here and now is not easy. You may be anxious, tired, may have some mild disorders, obsessions you don't even know about.

It's fine _if_ you can find a good therapist... but keep in mind you're putting yourself in somebody else's hands. You might find a good one, or you might find a charlatan who could really confuse, sidetrack, or mess you up. Be very careful when choosing. Don't agree to a lengthy commitment to one, but rather try them out on a session by session basis.

Good luck!

Re: Ask HN: How do you cope with being interupted?

#80

Post by petecooper »

I don't cope well with interruptions, especially since I work from home and the person I live with is very ADHD.

I take some pre-emptive measures to limit the impact: me wearing headphones is a visual sign that I am focussing. I have Sony WH-1000XM3 which are a game-changer for me: I can enable the noise cancelling when I need quiet, have music when I need it, and my housemate can see I am focussing. "Headphones on" is a verbal phrase we both use that means "only urgent or important stuff, please". Next step up from that is ear defenders (3M Peltor in black and red), which is simply "leave me be". I can't do too much in the Peltors since my tinnitus kicks off…and it's a bit disconcerting listening to your own pulse with a background "EeEeeEeeeEEEEeee" for too long.

Edit: and if I'm "headphones on" this time of year, my office is quite dark. Housemate flashes the main light on and off once to indicate they want to talk non-urgently, and I will raise my first finger to respectfully acknowledge with "1 minute, please", get to a point where I've made enough notes to be able to carry on, then take my headphones off, and then have the conversation.

Some of this may come across as being a bit pompous, but it works for both of us equally well.

Edit #2: if you're young and out at live gigs, get ear plugs. Tinnitus is no fun _at all_.

Post reply on HN