The companies are increasingly adapting Agile methodology, Continuous Integration and Development process to make the delivery efficient. There is also a noticeable increase of productivity among the developers. The management expectation has gone up and this creates a quite a bit of stress on engineers to keep the pace. Staying focused on finishing one logical task becoming increasingly challenging for Lead Engineers when they handle multiple modules with a baggage of supporting many of their previous projects.
Here are few practical tips on staying focused on your high priority tasks.
1. Start your day addressing the Critical item only , not reading the email :-
Many of us starts our day going through the new emails and replying them. I will suggest spending first two hours of your day addressing the P1 items like :-
2. Allocate specific time for new email :-
So when should you read your new emails? Allocate two specific times in a day for new emails and replying them. For example :-
3. Dealing with too many emails :-
A very simple solution for this is to apply effective email-filter, so only the relevant email stays on the top. All enterprise email program comes with filter utilities.
Here are some filter examples :-
4. Block few hours for Technical works :-
The Senior Engineers spend more time on co-ordination and techno clerical work, thus loosing the focus on core technical work. The best way to address this issue is block at least 16 to 20hrs of your calendar for development work.
5. Everything has a home :-
Many external factor helps you stay focused. Few examples could be :- A clean desk, decluttered workspace, clean email box etc. How to have a clean desk ? I got this key take away statement "Everything has a hone" from a time-management training. Any object lies on your desk should have a home. The home could be a paper tray, drawer, book shelves, trash can etc. Same goes for email. Every email has a home (a rule based folder) .
Here are few practical tips on staying focused on your high priority tasks.
1. Start your day addressing the Critical item only , not reading the email :-
Many of us starts our day going through the new emails and replying them. I will suggest spending first two hours of your day addressing the P1 items like :-
- Any P1 follow-up items from yesterday. Note that you will use the email only for this purpose, not reading the new emails.
- Any P1 technical issues/ code you are working on.
2. Allocate specific time for new email :-
So when should you read your new emails? Allocate two specific times in a day for new emails and replying them. For example :-
- Around 10am, two hours after you finish your critical items.
- Again at 4pm, before winding down. Now you may have a TO-DO list for tomorrow from these emails.
3. Dealing with too many emails :-
A very simple solution for this is to apply effective email-filter, so only the relevant email stays on the top. All enterprise email program comes with filter utilities.
Here are some filter examples :-
- All emails where you are CCed should goes to "NotToMe" folder . The reason is obvious, you don't have to reply it immediately.
- We receives tons of email system generated email like, "server xxxx restarted", "The Certificate xxx is about to expire", etc. Carefully choose these regular emails that belongs to trash.
- Put a similar filter to all regular blah..blaha email straight to trash.
- Create sub folder for different subcategories. For example anything coming from Jira should go to Jira subfolder.
4. Block few hours for Technical works :-
The Senior Engineers spend more time on co-ordination and techno clerical work, thus loosing the focus on core technical work. The best way to address this issue is block at least 16 to 20hrs of your calendar for development work.
5. Everything has a home :-
Many external factor helps you stay focused. Few examples could be :- A clean desk, decluttered workspace, clean email box etc. How to have a clean desk ? I got this key take away statement "Everything has a hone" from a time-management training. Any object lies on your desk should have a home. The home could be a paper tray, drawer, book shelves, trash can etc. Same goes for email. Every email has a home (a rule based folder) .
6. Continuous Planning :-
This is mostly applicable to Senior / Lead engineers who are very often face the questions like when it will be done? Why it is not done? What taking so much of time ? What is the estimation ? and so on .. So continuous planning is THE critical task, that will provide you the tool that will help you answering these questions.
Some useful tips on planning tools :-
Conclusion :-
I learned these over the years working in a very demanding environment. I try my best to stick to these rules, though I just do fire fighting in some of the chaotic days. These tips are not new to many of you. Love to hear your experience on dealing with distractions and how to stay focused.
This is mostly applicable to Senior / Lead engineers who are very often face the questions like when it will be done? Why it is not done? What taking so much of time ? What is the estimation ? and so on .. So continuous planning is THE critical task, that will provide you the tool that will help you answering these questions.
Some useful tips on planning tools :-
- TO-DO list for the Month/ Quarter - Use tools like a formula based planning spreadsheet or Jira structure that will be handy in getting a near perfect report on the project status. Particularly, the number of remaining-hours required for your project stories. At-least 2 hrs a week need to be spend in updating the story detail. Usually I reserve 2 hrs every alternative Friday.
- Ensure that your Monthly plan match the road map time line done by your manager.
- TO-DO list for the Week :- Maintain a sticky note or a working journal for listing every-days TO-DO list. This takes only 10 mins and can be done in the morning. Plan your day around this weekly TO-DO list.
Conclusion :-
I learned these over the years working in a very demanding environment. I try my best to stick to these rules, though I just do fire fighting in some of the chaotic days. These tips are not new to many of you. Love to hear your experience on dealing with distractions and how to stay focused.
