17.15. Memory Cues and Resumption Strategies¶
17.15.1. Effects of Interruptions¶
Both in industry and for college class programmers, the typical interruption costs you about 15 minutes.
Types of interruptions:
Phone
Visitor
Breaks
Some of these you can control (more or less). Some not so easy.
17.15.2. Recovering from Interruptions¶
Control (defer) the interruption
Don’t answer the text message right now
Ask the person to give you a minute or two
Break at the right times
Brain Dump
The goal is to minimize time to get back on track
Give yourself notes and clues
17.15.3. Brain Dump¶
Think of it like a computer switching process:
It stores enough information to restart the process where it left off
In a similar way, you want to generate a “brain dump” before stopping
Some of this is an ongoing process:
Comments, TODO notes that you record out of habit
Some of this is tactical response to interruptions
Quick notes to help recover at time of interruption (This is why you might tell the visitor to wait a minute, while you make notes)
Appropriate arrangement of windows on screen
17.15.4. Comments and Notes in code¶
Comments in code about what needs doing. Shows context better than TODO list.
Can even leave a deliberate syntax error in code to force notice at compile time.
17.15.5. Selective Suspension¶
Maybe quitting for the day when you finish a function is not best.
This means you have to remember what you finished, and figure out what needs to be done next
An alternative is to continue on to the next task, and at least sketch it out
When you come back, if you set it up right you get taken right to the point where you left, with notes to get you on track again.
17.15.6. Personalize¶
Successful people have coping strategies for interruptions.
But everyone is different, and so different people use different mixes of strategies.
