Jumping in and out of context can drain energy.
I've been working mainly at home for almost two years now. I've loved it so far since I saved a lot of time by not having to commute to Amsterdam (35 mins) every day. Though: there's a lot more distraction around here.
I've had a period in which I could quickly become frustrated after being distracted while being in my flow. At moments when I was close to finishing a specific task or solving a nasty bug, Bernie (our dog) or Maaike (my girlfriend) would enter the room to ask me for attention.
You could read my frustration from my response which is not friendly to either dog or Maaike. I also felt terrible afterward: my response was not lovely ánd I didn't finish my task.
I will likely have to jump between contexts even more soon when our baby is here:
- Baby cries
- Dog needs to pee
- Maaike wants a hug
- Antoine wants to write an article!!!
- Repeat
You know what I mean 😉
It was a conversation I had with
Paul Hudson who shared his tip for my article on
creating a writing habit that inspired me to change how I work.
Paul told me this:
"If there's one tip I *do* live by, it's from the author Roald Dahl. His advice was always to stop writing in the middle of an exciting part of the story – rather than end the day by finishing a chapter in one of his stories; he would instead finish just in the middle of something exciting happening because it made it much easier to pick up the next day."Now the thing is: distraction is not always something you plan. It's unexpected. Yet, by applying the mindset of
"I can come back to this and finish it later, nice!"I've allowed myself to feel much more relaxed to jump contexts. Everything will become fine; it will just take a little more time.
Hopefully, this inspires you as well. Enjoy this week's SwiftLee Weekly!
p.s. Don't forget about the Design+Code giveaway
