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We tell how IT professionals optimize processes in order to focus on tasks and not be distracted by news noise and continuous communication with colleagues
About the expert: Andrey Demin, CEO of tada.team.
Why you should look at the methods of IT specialists
In psychology, there is the concept of a “flow state” – a feeling of maximum productivity when a person is fully engaged and focused on a task. This state is necessary for the work of a programmer who needs to keep a large number of abstractions and variables in mind at the same time, and at the same time write or edit code.
Ninlabs research analyzed 10 programming sessions and came to two conclusions:
Since remote teams are common in the IT sector, distractions are common. It turns out that a large amount of time is not a cheap specialist wasted. Companies understand this too. And since they learned about remote work in the IT sector long before the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, they have been looking for optimal forms of interaction for a long time. Here are five rules that can be useful not only in our field.
Rule 1. Attract a minimum of people to meetings
If you can reduce the number of meetings and video conferences, then you need to do this by trying to resolve issues without constant calls. We learned the rule in the first year of the pandemic. Now is the time to expand it: the fewer people who start the meeting, the better.
Often everyone who is related to the topic is gathered for a video call. But the participation of some highly qualified specialist is not always necessary. In order not to waste his time, only the necessary circle of people should be at the meeting. The rest can be involved in the process of solving a local problem or to answer a question, if necessary, and immediately after that let go to work. This is how we minimize the number of meetings for each individual team member.
Rule 2. Limit the number of tasks
Many developers are used to working with Agile and Scrum. The whole process is divided into short periods of time – weekly or two-week sprints. During each, programmers solve a specific, understandable and measurable list of tasks. At meetings between sprints, they talk about the status of implementation and receive new tasks.
All additional requests during the sprint either move to the next period of time, or shift the current tasks, if they are of higher priority. You either do A or B. You can’t do A and B at the same time.
When there is a specific list of tasks, and you understand that their volume will not suddenly increase, it is easier to tune in to work, plan a day or week, and focus on the process.
Rule 3. Automate everything that can be automated
There are tasks that are repeated from time to time. They can be automated. Speaking about our experience, we use the GET Lab service, which stores the code and is responsible for assembling test benches from test servers. It is enough to fill in the code, and it is already assembled automatically. The specialist receives a notification of readiness or errors when something has happened and his attention is needed. As a result, a person does not need to follow everything in the process.
We and our clients use the tada.team open API to automate routines. For example, we have a website where users can write wishes for new features and vote for them. We have created a bot that collects the most anticipated options and translates them into tasks on our platform. We can discuss them during the next sprint.
You can automate a lot in any area. For example, in logistics, to enable the client to see the delivery path so that he does not distract the dispatcher. And send push notifications to the logistician only when the driver deviated from the route. In a warehouse, set up printing hundreds of invoices with one click instead of clicking one button a hundred times, and so on.
Rule 4. Remove all irritants
Programmers have different approaches to planning the day. Someone clearly paints the day and sticks to the schedule, someone uses the “Pomodoro technique” – breaks the working day into segments of 30 minutes: concentrates 25 minutes at work to catch the “flow state”, and then gives himself 5 minutes to rest, – or sets a timer on the computer, and someone prefers a floating schedule. But they have one thing in common – in the process of active work, it is better to remove all irritants.
Developers try to isolate themselves from the news for a while, turn off push notifications or mobile Internet, and do not access instant messengers. If you need to get to a person urgently, you can call. It helps to separate communication tools into personal and work ones: for example, mail for work, instant messengers for personal correspondence.
In open space, the usual rules also apply. You can’t talk loudly and for a long time: either speak quietly and briefly, or go into the negotiation so as not to interfere.
Rule 5: Facilitate access to communication and information tools
Access to any company information should be simplified to a couple of clicks. For example, a notebook with employee profiles can be sewn into the intracorporate platform. So, when adding a new employee to the chat, you will be able to see his position and photo, so that later you can recognize him by sight, study the area of responsibility and, in our case, the technology stack. Having a shared notebook will also make it easier to add employees to team chats.
Integration of an intracorporate messenger with a kanban board will allow you to quickly set tasks and assign performers directly from the correspondence, and attach a thematic chat to each task.
Since many people are really annoyed by short voice messages – sometimes it is inconvenient to listen to them or you need to look for headphones – automatic transcription can be integrated into communication tools. So the messenger will display the content of the voice message in text form on the screen.
These are a few examples of how to make information easier to access. An open API, the presence of ready-made modules within the platform for creating chatbots and easy data synchronization with other applications make the possibilities for ensuring the convenience of communication within the team almost limitless.