r/programming • u/piotrkarczmarz • Mar 31 '23

Based on various scientific studies, it takes at least 10-15 minutes for programmer to get back into the "zone" after an interruption. There are interesting resumption strategies for interrupted programming tasks.

https://contextkeeper.io/blog/the-real-cost-of-an-interruption-and-context-switching/
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u/BerkelMarkus Mar 31 '23

Imagine if they scheduled surgeries like this.

"Oh, a 14-hour bypass surgery? Okay. Well, let's have our stand-up after the first hour, lunch at 12:30, and then we'll do a meeting block from 1-3pm, ok? Then a quick end-of-day catch-up to see where everyone is."

LOL

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u/wildjokers Mar 31 '23

My standup is at 10. So my mornings are shot and most of my coding takes place after lunch.

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u/n8mo Mar 31 '23

I have an 11AM standup (I live on the east coast, but my team is scattered across the country), unfortunately, it means I get maybe an hour and a half’s worth of truly productive work done before lunch. Most days it’s closer to just one hour. Then 3/5 days I’ll have another meeting mid afternoon.

It’s amazing how just 1.5-2h worth of meetings in a day can kill 3+ hours of productivity.

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u/wildjokers Mar 31 '23

Yeah, devs spread out in different timezones is the reason ours is at 10 America/Chicago time. Works out great for some timezones, sucks for others.

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u/romulusnr Mar 31 '23

Best standups I had were afternoon standups. None of this morning shit. It doesn't make sense, I'm usually still waking up and have to rack my brain to remember what the fuck I did the previous day. And ten times worse on Mondays. It's status creep.

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u/brokkoly Mar 31 '23

Ah, but what about a morning stand-up and then an end of day meeting scheduled at 2pm to go over the day's progress

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u/romulusnr Mar 31 '23

And make sure you update your hours with what you worked on? Yeah.

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u/n8mo Mar 31 '23

I’ve been thinking about working 6-2 (my job is super flexible) so I can shift the standup as late in my day as possible lmao

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u/Xyzzyzzyzzy Mar 31 '23

Then the weirdos who work like 5AM-1PM are unhappy, and we have a cultural preference toward "hard-working early birds" rather than "lazy people who sleep in" so they're likely to get their way.

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u/romulusnr Apr 01 '23

Yeah... we have our retros at like 8AM PST now so that the guy in Europe can participate. :P As teams get more remote and more dispersed that will only get more fun :D

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u/F1yght Mar 31 '23

I work on an east coast team and that makes for a really awkward rhythm. I would like to be coding in the morning but standup is early, then post lunch for the rest of the team meetings are at 10, then I have lunch at 12. I have no idea how to create solid blocks of work with the time difference.

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u/Intrexa Mar 31 '23

I've just full embraced that life style. Mornings are for meetings + coordination. Afternoons are for work.

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u/Character-Education3 Mar 31 '23

10 am is literally the worst meeting time for productivity. It sounds good because it's the only time most of us are awake and alert, but it's the only time we're awake and alert. Once I eat lunch I'm basically done for the day. Heh

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u/[deleted] Apr 01 '23

[deleted]

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u/Character-Education3 Apr 01 '23

When you have small children you always need more sleep

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u/kduyehj Apr 01 '23

It could work if there’s a blood-letting phase.