Study: Focus will shape the future of distributed work | Hacker News Reader

Study: Focus will shape the future of distributed work

blog.dropbox.com

108 pointsmohon26 comments

Dear team,

Latest research indicates that interruptions are a major distraction and cause of stress in the modern distributed workplace.

In keeping with our ongoing focus on the wellbeing of our staff, and in order to improve morale and productivity, these new policies are therefore in full effect starting immediately:

- Emails are to be checked and sent only during three half-hour periods each day: 8am, 1pm, and 4pm. This will prevent interruptions and maximise your focus.

- Instant Messaging (via teams AND slack) must be reserved only for urgent blockers. We are monitoring activity for the time being, continued "noisy" chatter on these channels may lead to further policy improvements.

- Phone calls and videoconferences require a clear, written agenda and are to be scheduled via email as per the thrice-daily email periods. All outcomes to be clearly documented in CRM, wiki, or task board as relevant. Email your project manager if you're uncertain on these processes.

- All such activities are to be logged against billable projects where relevant. Any non-billable communications are to be logged under "Focus Improvement - Internal"

Over time we will build up a clearer picture of focus, interruptions, and productivity, so our standard timekeeping policies remain in effect. Please submit all time entries immediately upon completion of any activity so that we can effectively track and manage these improvements.

And don't forget, our team virtual fitness challenge shirts are being ordered on Friday so don't forget to fill out the spreadsheet with your preferences and remember to hit up the donations page - it's for a great cause!

Love,

Management

You forgot to add after

Love,

Management

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Demanded by,

Employees complaining

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Management tends to invent things when they get idle, but it's the employees who demand the virtual fitness challenges, special interest groups (veterans, lgbt, hispanic, book clubs), complain about too many notifications, and send out their own meeting invites without agendas.

Good call, that's actually a valid point.

I wanted to carry on the fun but your rebuttal gave me pause to reflect, and I realised two things, one being that I was not entirely fair in my characterisation of management, the other being that by taking the sarcastic approach I wasn't projecting my values effectively either.

I'm not a big fan of the "I was only joking" routine so I'll take the time to try and straighten myself out.

In the context of the linked article, I chose to read it through the skewed lens of a ham-fisted metrics-driven management-stereotype who doesn't pause to consider the cultural and productivity impacts of half baked and reactive policy directives, leading to much chaos and dismay.

In actual fairness, I would say most managers I've had the pleasure of working under or alongside are not like this at all. I have worked with some truly excellent managers. The stereotype I called on is in my experience much rarer, usually new to the role or inexperienced, but it is what I've seen cause the most cultural and productivity damage in organisations which is why my reaction skewed in that direction.

If I am being totally honest with myself, when I first found myself in a management position, having ratcheted up from a development background, I was naïve and very much process focussed, and acted like every problem could be solved with additional or more detailed instructions. There was definitely also projection here on my behalf.

Nowadays I take a more measured and analytical approach to things in general, being thrust into management was a very tough learning curve but was also ultimately rewarding in terms of personal growth and professional development.

I definitely shouldn't be here taking my frustrations of the day out on random articles, even if thinly veiled in jest. I should have written some music or put on an audiobook instead...

Having said that, I couldn't resist one more before I turn in for the evening.

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Failure to acknowledge receipt of this email by COB will be considered an act of mutiny, and all dissidents will be fed directly to the server room boilers.

This is your first and only warning.

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Anyway, have a good day / night.

You are great. Great post. Cheers!

The notion that loneliness is the biggest distraction is a revelation to me. I have worked from home for 12years but didn't recognise this as an issue I face until now.

Sometimes I just crave talking with someone about what I am working on. If I am designing something I can't just call the people that do fabrication on my team because they are busy working on the last thing I designed. We're so asynch and efficient that I hardly ever talk with anyone about my task at hand so I spend a lot of time staring at the wall above my screen, second-guessing myself because I can't thrash out decisions with another mind.

Then I end up browsing HN for a distracting but familiar endorphin hit....

This worries me. Not just because it sounds like you're lonely or need some help, but because we're moving into a future that will see more people working from home.

What about your working environment or current way of operating could resolve this issue for you? Could just having a like minded Discord server with other people you can talk to be enough (even if it's text based)?

My door is open if you want to chat.

Thats kind. My comment probably sounds more glib than it should but I was trying to draw attention to the issue of isolated work in general. I have plenty of people around me a lot. I just dont get to talk through work challenges with them so I think it leads to distraction like the article suggests

Maybe try and find someone who is willing to just share presence with you via conf? My coworker and I often just remain in conf while continuing to work and basically just hear the other person typing. It helps a bit

interesting suggestion. If the objective is to minimise distraction, is being in constant conference not distracting?

We're probably less productive in these confs, but are overall more content and have shorter response cycles if problems come up so it really evens out and puts less strain on us mentally. We're also not really talking allthe time. it's weird, but the presence of someone else (even if they're just typing) has an overall positive effect on me.

Programmers have a wonderful solution that builds on shared presence -reducing loneliness- while enhancing focus. By using a shared screen for WFH, pair programming seems an ideal fit for the current situation. It also allows for expensing a nice gaming headset.

I'm really glad I moved into a large highrise before all of this.

Every morning I go to the roof and get some coffee/hot chocolate as part of a morning "routine" which seems to be really important for productivity. I usually see a few people on the way there which I think does a lot for my mental health.

That's ... oddly specific. Do you live in my building?

Possibly, do you live in VA?

yes

> Sometimes I just crave talking with someone about what I am working on.

This is how I do my best problem-solving. Recently my dog has been listening to me talk through my thought-process and work out the order of attack for implementation but this is one of the few instances where a dog just doesn’t hold a candle to a human. Even a person who knows nothing at all about what I’m working on can be a huge help to talk things through.

I wouldn't read too much into it because frankly it's just written to get Dropbox some SEO traffic when people search for these things, and maybe some of them will start using it.

Best marketing is invisible, sadly this isn't.

This assumes that without distractions, people can do focused work for the whole workday; I for one can't, I need a distraction every once in a while. At most I can do two hours of uninterrupted work, then my ass cheeks hurt and I need to get up and move around.

I am starting to think of changing jobs again to something that involves more cooperation with others. Not too much of course.

What you're describing is "taking a break", at your schedule, when you need it. Having other people interrupting / bothering you while you're trying to focus is a poor substitute for taking breaks.

> I am starting to think of changing jobs again to something that involves more cooperation with others.

My favourite part of software engineering is solving a problem with a bunch of people in front of a whiteboard trade pros & cons of a certain design approach.

This remote stuff has really killed my favourite part of my job. The software itself in enterprise is never exciting in itself especially in maintenance mode.

I asked a friend of mine at a factory about openings. I just do not enjoy working in isolation.

This post is so ironic. There is no corner of the internet left to run to in a culture of spam.

It’s a survey–which is cheap to administer, but probably best not to read too much into it.

When I started in this business I had my own office. I could close the door or leave it open which was a sign of my availability. Me or any of my colleagues were free to roam the halls and decompress or bounce ideas off any one else with open doors. Also, we had common areas we could congregate to.

This environment was orders of magnitude less distracting than the modern open floor plan sweat shop. It was also significantly less distracting than working from home but I think that's because "productivity" tools like Slack didn't exist yet.

I think a lot of this holds true. Our team experimented with what would happen if we stopped having meetings and sending emails, a hard shift into asynchronous working. It was really useful for helping us find the middle ground, what worked well, rather than stringently requiring everyone to work that way for ever. For example, we found that having meeting-free days really helped people focus on important tasks, getting more done.

I've been working on a side project to help teams focus - https://www.indiehackers.com/product/our-time-to-think - It's surprisingly hard to find people who actually want to not be distracted.

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