If interrupted, take a second to dump your train of thought in some notes. Your team/interrupter should respect you enough to let you get the thoughts out of your head before beginning the conversation.
Implement solid blocks of time when you aren't to interrupt your team or you can develop an understanding that when someone needs help that they send a Teams/Slack message so that you can read it when you are ready to come out of the flow.
Getting a notification doesn't mean that you have to answer it immediately. Finish what you are doing and come to a stopping point or dump your thoughts into notes so you can easily context switch back into the flow.
If you ever get stuck, instead of freaking out, break the problem into bite-sized pieces and do what you can. This way, when the time comes to get help, you and your potential mentor can easily have an intelligent conversation over more than just the problem itself.
My tip is to listen to soft quiet music in the background to block out distractions. Have a list of tasks you want to complete so you are not wasting time finding whats to do next.
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Top comments (2)
Yes on number 3! I usually just close my e-mail altogether. Colleagues will come up to me to ask if I saw their e-mail, haha, nope. I'm busy.
Most of them know by now that I might not answer quick :P
And I love number 5. I usually listen to instrumental movie soundtracks.
I listen to free code camp instrumental music station when I really want to dig into a problem. Something about no words just a quiet beat that makes the mind think clearer.