Mental modes (by alaric)
Hmmm, it appears I have two mental modes when working.
Deeply focussed into something. I block out distractions to hold onto the focus. This is what I need when I'm programming. Once I get into this mood, I get a lot done, since I have all the pertinent information sitting in my head and all the correct windows open on my computer, but it can be an uphill struggle to get started.
Event driven. When I'm dealing with emails, phonecalls, broken servers, and that sort of thing, I'm in a very different mode, agily flipping between things. I come across problems that will clearly need some deep focus, and I have to put them off for later, since it takes me a while to get out of deep mode and into event-driven mode.
This morning I've been event-driven, catching up on email, dealing with a down server, and now I really ought to try moving back into deep focus mode to work on something else, and I'm finding it hard; my thoughts just keep jumping around!
I really want to decrease my dependence on lots of deep thought mode for earning money; part of this revolves around getting an underling to do more of the programming so I can be event-drivenly mentoring them while doing the considerably easier form of deep thought required to design software architectures for them to implement... which is a work in progress as we speak...
Mon 25th Feb 2008 12:32 pm 
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By Lionel, Fri 7th Mar 2008 @ 6:07 pm
The event driven bit has been the plague of my life in recent years. It holds one in a passive state like a leaf blown in the wind - I want to do something solid but the phone rings, someone needs to borrow something, the software needs updating then the internet is slow, now it's time for lunch and i have not yet bought butter...
Suddenly there is peace and I should be immediately focussing on my original intended work. But, like you say, it takes time to revert to deep thought and I remain fluttering in the wind and agitated until the next rush of events drive me on again.