Hacker News Reader

The easiest and most most acceptable solution to that is earbuds/earphones. Put music on, put rain sounds on. If someone comes up to you to talk about non-work stuff decide whether it's a good time to take a quick break or to breifly explain; I'm busy, man.

I've got the same layout at work and I'm even the go-to tech support guy, but when I want to get shit done I'm not afraid to tell anyone to stop bothering me.

View on HN

A note of caution when using the, "I'm busy, man". It borders on appearing rude, even if you didn't mean to be.

One of my colleagues was a recipient of that dialogue and his working relationship with the other person almost ended at that point.

I've found success at times with the pomodoro method, and the pomodairo tool. I have a ticking clock on my desktop, and if someone comes to bother me, I can easily point to it and say, "Can this wait another 12 minutes?"

Reply on news.ycombinator.com