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5 practices I follow to get into Flow State while coding

Ankit Anand ✨ on July 05, 2021

How can developers be more productive? Devs need to be focused for long hours, often with critical deadlines and bugs to be squashed. Can we rely ...
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Jameel Ur Rahman

Another way to let your teammates know is to decide on a signal that they can watch out for. In my current workplace, people wear a headset (whether or not they listen to music) to indicate they're busy and trying to do focused work.

It's worked out surprisingly well althogh it's not really a company wide culture as much as an understanding between team members.

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Dana Kashubeck

When we were all together in an office, that's exactly what we did. It was so easy to just lift your head and engage with someone on something in the moment. But if you saw they had their earbuds/headphones in, you squashed that and sent an email instead.

Personally, I try to use email for anything that isn't time-sensitive, as I get pinged in Slack so very much. Now when I go heads-down, I log out of Slack altogether and set my status to DND. But it is tough to get everyone to respect that.

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Ankit Anand ✨

That's a cool signal 😁

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Adrian Matei

I agree with all your points except number 2 - music might distract me... And pomodoro I use 25 min with 5 min pause. I also try to keep non-programming related tasks as short as possible - I am very disciplined when it comes to bookmarking stuff (code and links) that I might recall later. I even built a tool to help with that, it's called Codever...

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Ankit Anand ✨

Thanks Adrian! Codever seems like a good tool to manage code and links. If I'm honest sometimes while browsing, I tend to forget why I started :|. I will definitely check it out.

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Adrian Matei

"I tend to forget why I started :|" - Ankit, I hear you loud and clear :)

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Hristos Tsislianis

This is so much needed especially in the open-office work culture..
Music-wise i find frequencies to be working really well: Binaural beats/ Isochronic tones(especially Theta and Gamma depending if you also need the energy buzz or not) . If i may also propose a (audio)book concerning flow state which is really revealling of the importance of undistracted concentration(and really well written...it just "flows"!): "Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World"
By Cal Newport

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Ankit Anand ✨

Yes, I have heard about this book. Thanks for reminding me about this Hristos! Will put it up for my next reading item

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Chinwike Maduabuchi

Interesting fact — Cal is a computer scientist! So the book aligns with our profession. Great recommendation

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Christopher Kapic

I find that the flow state is also dependent upon what I am working on. If it’s a technology I’m not too familiar with, then the process feels rough and I am slow, but if it is a technology I know well I can really get going.

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Ankit Anand ✨

True! As I mentioned, you can achieve flow state with things you're good at. When I'm also trying out something new, it requires a much more conscious effort!

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Muhammad Hasnain

Out of five, four points can definitely get you into the "flow" state. However, for me, if I have to do a task that requires though and attention, I cannot listen to any music. It becomes a distraction of sort. If I'm working on something passively, it isn't an issue. Anyone else?

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Ankit Anand ✨ • Edited

Yes, it's tricky for me too. If I keep the music at low volume, it makes me feel a bit distant from my surroundings which helps me focus!

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Hristos Tsislianis

There are also natural/chemical substances that work particularly well for entering and preserving flow state: l-theanine(natural, present in green tea) and sulbutiamine(chemical-of course legal and over the counter as "Arcallion" and other brands-), are my favourites, both of which are widely accesible(depends on where you live but then again...e-commerce...but then again...depends on where u live...

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Ankit Anand ✨

Oh! I didn't know this

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Lee Wynne

Enjoyable read, music defo works for me - you should definitely checkout flowstate.to which is also powered by Forem

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Ankit Anand ✨

Wow this is amazing Lee! And felt like home as it's powered by Forem :)

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Lee Wynne

You're welcome Ankit 👊🏼

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Bikash Mishra

Thanks for sharing

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Ankit Anand ✨

You're welcome Bikash :)