The snap

I really like people, I want them to succeed and it pains me every time that I am a jerk with them, sometimes I am, I just gave a jerkish response to a friend and I wanted to find a way to explain why, so here I am, writing to the intertubes!

We live in the notifications era, it is really hard to give my full attention to something, because I get distracted, I procrastinate a lot, but also because I have to turn off the following: email, Whatsapp, Skype, Telegram, iMessage, slack, FB, Twitter, and sometimes I even have to hide from people.

I often try to explain people what is the benefit of concentration and the state of Flow, heck some people even believes that is the root of happiness, the reason I try to explain is because I am in a never ending fight to get to my keyboard and write something that matters or to get something done for our company.

I’ve been trying to encourage our team to imagine this:

I draw this, this explains why I am a programmer!

1. If there are urgent and important tasks, I must know immediately! Examples of this are: Free tacos in the kitchen, a team member is in danger or a client is upset.
2. If it is important but not urgent we can use our tracking tools or email each other, don’t tap me in the shoulder for this, examples are: Remember to call Peter by the end of the week.
3. Urgent but not important, this is where I snap sometimes if I get interrupted, and I probably shouldn’t (working on it!) but I feel the more I manage interruptions the more I can look after our team.
4. Not urgent and not important (Please don’t ever talk to me about this), examples are: We should see if Kanye West is president in 2020!

In general, THE ONLY REASON TO DISTRACT OURSELVES IS WHEN SOMEONE HAS SOMETHING IMPORTANT AND URGENT TO SAY.

Now, I like our team, really, and I try to do my best to spend quality time with our team members at lunch or when we party, is just that sometimes I get too distracted, I am very easy to distract! And I need to find ways to get work done.

I am also in the wrong side sometimes and people snaps at me, I apologize in advance for singing “THE CHAAAAAMMMMPIOOOOOONSSSSSSSSS!” every now and then when soccer is on, I am so sorry to mess with your state of flow.

This is also a recipe I found in here: http://randsinrepose.com/archives/a-nerd-in-a-cave/ not something I invented, maybe one day I’ll get a better response for people, who knows! In the meantime please bear with me while I get there.