Comments on: A Smoky Kitchen Today’s xkcd actually references this very problem, and the mouseover text contains an actual tip for a related technique: I have been trying to use an hour glass I recently; I have found if I can get an hour of straight work done (or multiple blocks of entire hours) without interruption or distraction I can achieve more.  The hour glass also looks cool :0) Previously I have made hour long meeting appointments for myself in outlook to block out the time here and there just so others also know I just *really* needed to get my head down - that is def useful when you are finding yourself fire fighting in a support role.  The greater your support duties are the more difficult this is to do though of course. I have been trying to use an hour glass I recently; I have found if I can get an hour of straight work done (or multiple blocks of entire hours) without interruption or distraction I can achieve more.  The hour glass also looks cool :0) Previously I have made hour long meeting appointments for myself in outlook to block out the time here and there just so others also know I just *really* needed to get my head down – that is def useful when you are finding yourself fire fighting in a support role.  The greater your support duties are the more difficult this is to do though of course.

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By: Brett Douville/2011/01/16/a-smoky-kitchen/#comment-717 Brett Douville Sun, 16 Jan 2011 20:31:11 +0000 Nice post. I’ve been tackling this myself lately. A few books/articles I’ve found useful:The Shallows (
) and the bloggers’ book Focus () has some suggestions on how to deal with interruptions better. Jotting down notes is something he definitely recommends.Pragmatic Thinking and Learning ( Incidentally, here is a nice taskbar timer, with source, to exercise the 15 minute concept (windows 7 only) Very interesting Brett. I find myself doing a lot of jumping around from task to task, only to ask myself "what was it I was working on again?" The Clifford Nass video struck a chord - I think I may have to try this 15-minute time chunking exercising out for myself. Thanks for the great post. Very interesting Brett. I find myself doing a lot of jumping around from task to task, only to ask myself “what was it I was working on again?” The Clifford Nass video struck a chord – I think I may have to try this 15-minute time chunking exercising out for myself. Thanks for the great post.

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