Great article, thanks to both of you! Any special tools (besides a Pomodoro timer) you use for staying focused (and let others know when your focus hours are) or it's just your calendar?
For me it's mostly my calendar and work chat status that I utilize. You want to look for the tools people use to reach you - if it's through chat, start there. If it's through your manager, also start there. Let them know that you'll be unavailable for X hours each week.
Great article with practical tips Sidwyn and Hemant!
I was wondering on:
> Team asks: When other teams come to me about: "Hey have you thought about this? What if we were to do that?" For me, I bunch these replies together during my lunch break, or at the end of my day. Processing and replying to them all at one go means that you aren't distracted.
+ Sevs
How do you combine your focus management tools which block these out, group the replies for less urgent ones, but also be available for urgent threads?
Thanks Jordan!! This triaging is still manual, and is actually just me scanning across threads. SEVs have a different icon to stand out in my chats, so that's easier. But you've given me an idea to build something for myself :)
That's a tricky one. I tend to ask the meeting host and all participants if they were open to moving the time to a different time. If you have access to everyone's calendars, you can actually see when's the best time to slot it in (aka minimize disruptions for everyone). Give that a shot.
Re: focus blocks. Start small. Even for a morning or afternoon that's fine. Once you have them, you'll be more inclined to figure out how to have a whole day's worth.
Thanks for these tips Hemant and Sidwyn. I like the tip about focus blocks and managing meeting volume
Something else that Ive tried at my stage in the journey is having a scratchpad and stack ranking the priorities (and then getting alignment from the PM and EM). This helped me save time on deciding what items I should tackle
Great article, thanks to both of you! Any special tools (besides a Pomodoro timer) you use for staying focused (and let others know when your focus hours are) or it's just your calendar?
For me it's mostly my calendar and work chat status that I utilize. You want to look for the tools people use to reach you - if it's through chat, start there. If it's through your manager, also start there. Let them know that you'll be unavailable for X hours each week.
Glad you enjoyed the article!
Thanks for the tips Sidwyn!
Great article with practical tips Sidwyn and Hemant!
I was wondering on:
> Team asks: When other teams come to me about: "Hey have you thought about this? What if we were to do that?" For me, I bunch these replies together during my lunch break, or at the end of my day. Processing and replying to them all at one go means that you aren't distracted.
+ Sevs
How do you combine your focus management tools which block these out, group the replies for less urgent ones, but also be available for urgent threads?
Thanks Jordan!! This triaging is still manual, and is actually just me scanning across threads. SEVs have a different icon to stand out in my chats, so that's easier. But you've given me an idea to build something for myself :)
Glad you enjoyed the article!
Makes sense. Thanks, Sidwyn!
Nice Article.
How do you deal with regularly scheduled meetings. Could be team syncs, etc
Typically a lot of these fall on Mondays.
Looing at my schedule, its possible for me to have focus blocks for say a morning, or afternoon. But an entire day is hard to find.
That's a tricky one. I tend to ask the meeting host and all participants if they were open to moving the time to a different time. If you have access to everyone's calendars, you can actually see when's the best time to slot it in (aka minimize disruptions for everyone). Give that a shot.
Re: focus blocks. Start small. Even for a morning or afternoon that's fine. Once you have them, you'll be more inclined to figure out how to have a whole day's worth.
Thanks for these tips Hemant and Sidwyn. I like the tip about focus blocks and managing meeting volume
Something else that Ive tried at my stage in the journey is having a scratchpad and stack ranking the priorities (and then getting alignment from the PM and EM). This helped me save time on deciding what items I should tackle
Really helpful
Glad you found it helpful :)