Dude, this is such a big part of software development or any career that requires concentration like ours. It does not get talked about enough.
If I have a clearly defined task it's not too bad to zone in and push out the other stuff, but if it's more discovery or context switching it becomes really hard.
One thing we do at our company which helps deal with this is a predefined "no but in seat syndrome" policy.
"But in seat syndrome" is when you keep sitting at your desk even when you aren't being productive. We try to preemptively encourage people to just get up and leave or get up and go for a walk when they aren't being productive or aren't into it. We don't want people staying until 6pm when they are only productive until 2pm but don't want to leave.
Avoiding feeling bad about these things is easier said than done but we have a term for it, which helps.
Dude, this is such a big part of software development or any career that requires concentration like ours. It does not get talked about enough.
If I have a clearly defined task it's not too bad to zone in and push out the other stuff, but if it's more discovery or context switching it becomes really hard.
One thing we do at our company which helps deal with this is a predefined "no but in seat syndrome" policy.
"But in seat syndrome" is when you keep sitting at your desk even when you aren't being productive. We try to preemptively encourage people to just get up and leave or get up and go for a walk when they aren't being productive or aren't into it. We don't want people staying until 6pm when they are only productive until 2pm but don't want to leave.
Avoiding feeling bad about these things is easier said than done but we have a term for it, which helps.
I didn't know it was a subject that caused so much trouble and require to think about it this much.
Thank you for your answer!
Personal stuff is tough! And there is definitely a lack of acceptance for even momentary performance degradation. We're only human.