Subsentient writes:
"I have a short attention span, a very short one, and I have very, abnormally poor energy levels, to such a point that while my physical strength can be up to snuff, my mind is always running at 8Mhz. I am a programmer. This is a problem. However, I find that some places are better to code at than others. If I can sit somewhere upright, looking down at the monitor, in a comfortable position, I can sometimes get some work done, and if my monitor is large, soft, and bright, I am better off still. Do soylentils have issues with location? What would you suggest for being able to sit down and code for hours, something I have NEVER been able to do?"
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Finding a Productive Place to Code?
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(Score: 3, Informative) by Ethanol-fueled on Monday March 24 2014, @01:16PM
The bar. Sit yourself down in a nice, dark bar with wifi, open up your laptop for a high-contrast environment, get yourself an alcoholic beverage of choice, and hack away.
As an added bonus, the day after you get to have a few chuckles at your code degenerating into misspellings, variables with curse words and functions with references to sexual organs, slurs, and comments about sports teams. You may also discover pretzel and chip crumbs in your keyboard.
(Score: 2) by wjwlsn on Monday March 24 2014, @01:30PM
This idea is not as crazy as it sounds. I wouldn't necessarily recommend sitting in a bar to program, but having a drink might help. My problem is that my mind is often too active to concentrate on one thing for very long... I keep getting distracted by things going on around me, or even within my own head. A drink or two calms all of that right down. Another thing that works for me, especially when I can't have a drink, is to listen to music with headphones... something that I know well already, and that has a relatively steady beat. It seems to regulate me somewhat and occupies the ADDled parts of my brain so that the rest of it can actually get to work.
I am a traveler of both time and space. Duh.
(Score: 1) by fishybell on Monday March 24 2014, @01:36PM
I was going to say the library, but I have to concede that you have indeed found the best solution.
(Score: 1) by Buck Feta on Monday March 24 2014, @01:47PM
Why not have both [yelp.com]?
(Score: 2, Interesting) by DECbot on Monday March 24 2014, @01:20PM
I wear headphones, but no lectures, music, or anything that I would find mentally interesting. I usually throw on podcasts from theperfectmix.fm at a soft volume to tune out the normal office noises and conversations. I'd barely notice the passage of time while listening to a 3-hour trance session while coding or illustrating. It all sounds like the same song anyway.
Coffee helps too. But somewhere between 1.25 liters and snorting crushed beans, I find that it becomes counter productive and I can't concentrate on anything.
(Score: 2) by Grishnakh on Monday March 24 2014, @01:30PM
I tried headphones at a previous workplace, and it didn't work well at all. The problem was that assholes kept coming up behind me and tapping me on the shoulder because they wanted something from me, instead of simply sending me an email (or just approaching from the front if talking face-to-face is soooo fucking important). I got so tired of being startled several times a day I stopped wearing them. Then I was miserable dealing with all the commotion and noise, from the A/C unit directly over my head and all the people walking by and sitting on my desk and having chat sessions with the other people in my workgroup. I finally got so sick of it I walked out one day.
(Score: 3, Informative) by wjwlsn on Monday March 24 2014, @01:47PM
Post a sign: "I'm concentrating. Send me an email. I guarantee a much better response that way. Interrupt me now at your own peril."
I am a traveler of both time and space. Duh.
(Score: 2) by Nerdfest on Monday March 24 2014, @02:01PM
This really is required. Put on the back of your chair or something. I used to think it was kind of a dick-ish thing to do, but it's a lot better for everyone than what happens after I'm interrupted for the fourth time while trying to get a complicated piece of threaded code written.
(Score: 2) by mth on Monday March 24 2014, @02:06PM
When I want to concentrate, I either play music I know very well or instrumental music with a simple structure. That way, the music suppresses distracting sounds while not being a distraction itself. I always play it at mid volume though, since low-volume music involuntarily takes effort for me to listen to (trying to make out details).
(Score: 2, Insightful) by i7quad on Monday March 24 2014, @10:46PM
This ^^ ... I do hate, what I can barely hear the music, like someone has the radio on, but I can't really make, what it is playing ...brain(s) starts concentrating on that ... what a distraction
(Score: 4, Interesting) by mechanicjay on Monday March 24 2014, @01:20PM
Some of what you describe is an issue faced by all knowledge workers. Study after study has shown that for people who primarily think for a living, need a quiet distraction free environment in order to be truly productive. For some reason, bean counters seem to keep finding new reasons to stick us in cube farms, or the worst nightmare for concentration, an open floor plan. If you want me to be really productive, I need to be able to tune out distractions and shut the door for a couple hours.
My current office is:
When it gets really bad in here, I'll do one a few things: I'll grab the laptop and sit outside (on nice days), or in the library where it's guaranteed to be quiet. Sometimes, I'll purposely use my laptop wit the small display instead of my desktop with dual 22's, just to tune out the electronic distractions of blinking notifications and whatnot. When I worked at a place with an open floor plan, the conference rooms were usually in high-demand, not for conferences, but for people looking to concentrate.
My VMS box beat up your Windows box.
(Score: 2) by Grishnakh on Monday March 24 2014, @01:34PM
I don't the bean counters are the problem, I think it's management. Managers have this stupid idea that open work spaces foster "collaboration", and that stuff gets done by getting a bunch of people together and having them flap their lips a lot. After all, that's all managers ever do: talk talk talk (and LOUDLY). They think everyone is just like them: extroverted and LOUD and needing to talk about everything.
(Score: 2) by wjwlsn on Monday March 24 2014, @01:43PM
This may work for the majority of knowledge workers, but for those with ADD/ADHD, it may be the wrong answer. I say "may" because some may respond well to a quiet, serene environment... but for others (like me), such an environment actually makes things worse. I think this is because most of my distractions are actually from my own head ... stray thoughts, weird ideas, mental static, lack of regulation, etc. My brain often seems like a radio without an antenna, or with a malfunctioning tuner.
What helps me to get rid of unwanted mental noise is: a) at work, some headphones and familiar music with a steady beat, or b) at home, a beer or two. Then, on top of that, a quiet, distraction-free environment can be nice, but is not necessary. When my brain is not pumping out its own noise and static, I seem perfectly capable of ignoring all external distractions.
I am a traveler of both time and space. Duh.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 25 2014, @11:54AM
That's a perfect description of how my brain feels most of the time (short of chemical aids to force focus, but those only work in the short term and have very large negative effects for me in the longer term).
Usually, I start out being distracted by too much quiet, so I put on music. After a while, if I'm intensely working on a project, I'll start to find noise distracting, so it's back to quiet. Repeat ad infinitum. What also works is getting out of my usual workspace and finding a crowded coffee shop or library. I seem to be able to focus just fine in a crowd of total strangers--not so much around co-workers and friends.
Another thing: when I need to do math, I can do it just fine on paper but I have to write every step down, or I lose track of where I am. If someone asks me to explain something in the middle, I'm completely lost until I've had a minute to settle my brain back down and get it all back in my head (same for coding). Some people seem to be able to do it all in their head--not me. I need my paper.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Chromodynamics on Monday March 24 2014, @02:18PM
I am the exact opposite of this. If its too quiet ill start noticing things like hums from equipment, fans, etc. I hate libraries, every tiny noise is incredibly distracting. I need noise to work. Usually I put on lectures, sometimes harsh up beat music like drum and bass. Coffee shops are great too. The noise is almost like white noise to me. Open plan doesn't bother me at all. So I definitely disagree with your statement of "all knowledge workers". However it does sound like you sit in a thoroughfare, which is surely to be distracting.
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Monday March 24 2014, @01:44PM
Living room couch, wireless keyboard and mouse, monitor on the coffee table (adjust distance as necessary). Puts you near the coffee maker and it's a damned sight more comfortable than even the best desk chair unless you really suck at picking couches.
Caveat: This does not go over well if you have a significant other in the house with you.
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(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 24 2014, @04:13PM
What caveat? My husband set this up for me, with the exception that the monitor is our TV.
He's a keeper.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by zosden on Monday March 24 2014, @01:49PM
My favorite place to work is at home either at the kitchen table or laying down in my bed. If I am working on something I need to concentrate a lot for (a difficult algorithm or on design) I will just listen to music with no lyrics in my headphones. If I am working on mindless coding I will often have netflix on. At work I tend to just listen to music that has no lyrics and plug away at whatever I am doing. I also tend to walk over to co-worker's desk instead of sending an email. Probably as a way to stretch my legs and take a break. At home this usually isn't an issue.
My ideal work place is 2-3 monitors at a desk if I am in need of a lot of research. If I am doing simple coding stuff then laying down in my bed watching netflix is the best way to go.
When I'm walking I worry a lot about the efficiency of my path ~ Randall
(Score: 2) by VLM on Monday March 24 2014, @02:01PM
"music that has no lyrics"
Just say classical. Beethoven piano sontatas are sometimes a little overdramatic, but they work often enough for me.
Plain white noise works pretty well. Not a jet engine but air conditioner, maybe a fan.
(Score: 1) by zaxus on Monday March 24 2014, @03:49PM
Both jazz and electronic music have countless examples of lyric-free songs, not to mention progressive rock...just because it's lyricless doesn't mean it's classical.
(Score: 1) by zosden on Monday March 24 2014, @03:51PM
Exactly this. Dubstep / drum and bass are often good to listen to while working. Lyrics tend to make me focus more to the song instead of what I am doing.
When I'm walking I worry a lot about the efficiency of my path ~ Randall
(Score: 2) by tangomargarine on Monday March 24 2014, @04:11PM
Unless you have a different definition of dubstep ("brostep"?), that sounds like a horrible idea. It would crank me up and make me irritable; maybe even give me a headache. "Music" that sounds like an industrial construction project is not for me, *especially* when trying to concentrate.
A Discordian is Prohibited of Believing what he reads.
(Score: 1) by zosden on Monday March 24 2014, @04:16PM
Something like this is nice to listen to while working. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aHjpOzsQ9YI [youtube.com]
When I'm walking I worry a lot about the efficiency of my path ~ Randall
(Score: 2) by VLM on Monday March 24 2014, @04:24PM
Interesting suggestions. I may try some of those. New stuff may be too interesting, making it distracting. I have tried to listen to some calm streams from di.fm but they tend to be too new and too interesting. Beethoven's 14th piano sonata at least has the virtue of not having changed much over the past couple decades even if it is a little cheesy because its been way overplayed. Also I don't want elevator music. There seems to be a fine line of interesting, but not too interesting. Which is how I personally ended up on classical, although I can see individual preference being important.
(Score: 5, Informative) by lx on Monday March 24 2014, @01:57PM
I know from experience that attention can be trained. Silent meditation is a good way. Personally I'm into Zen, but other systems like Vipassana are just as effective. You'll be surprised what staring at a wall can do for you.
This Google Talk is a good introduction. [youtube.com] It may be a bit long for those with a short attention span but well worth it.
(Score: 2) by Thexalon on Monday March 24 2014, @02:55PM
Meditation, in a nutshell: Training yourself to do nothing. It turns out that training yourself to do nothing makes doing something easier.
Every task is easy if somebody else is doing it.
(Score: 2) by VLM on Monday March 24 2014, @02:05PM
Find the best place to meditate, then code there. Not while others are meditating, the keyboard will piss them off.
Oh, you say your next question is where's a good place to meditate. Well...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 25 2014, @12:04PM
The best place to meditate would be far away from my computer. As a kid, I used to write my code out on paper and take it with me to punch in later, but I seriously don't think that's the best way to code anymore.
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 24 2014, @02:05PM
I don't understand why this question doesn't answer itself. If you have a slow mind and more inputs steal precious cycles, then find a way to reduce the number of inputs to the bare minimum. What works for you won't necessarily work for others and vice versa. Maybe music is just another input that you need to avoid. I assume you label yourself an engineer. Engineer a solution customized to your particular issue. Maybe you would find more benefit overclocking for short bursts rather than trying to maintain standard clock for long periods.
(Score: 1) by uiginn on Monday March 24 2014, @02:26PM
I thought we came here to avoid this Slashdot style crap.
(Score: 2) by bucc5062 on Monday March 24 2014, @03:14PM
WHile my view may not be quite as harsh, I do feel a little like this is too vague.
"This is a problem. However, I find that some places are better to code at than others.".
What does that mean? Is the submitter one who switches jobs or works at a place that allows one to shop around? Is s/he a contractor, work at home type so I cannot see that issue working in a more "formal" environment. I've been around, mainly in corporate and almost never did I have a luxury of choosing my work place. At second best it was an office (oh Dupont, how I miss you), at worst a cube farm with half walls. Throughout it was not my choice, I was told "deal with it", and either made due or not. About the best I ever had was 4 years working from home and then I could make the workplace what worked for me.
So I don't get this question at all. No offense to the OP, but unless I am missing something and you own your own business and this questions relates to your "personal space" I think the realistic answer is "learn to deal with it" or maybe programming is not a good role for you.
I a thinking working I love quiet or music of my choosing. Bean counters love cubes, noise, and chaos. The former is the most productive for me, but hard to measure in bottom line costs, the latter an MBA dream of efficiency and lower production. There days I think I'd prefer my "office" to be a barn where I'm mucking stalls, fixing things, teaching kids to ride, and hanging out with horses...currently I just get the horse's ass.
The more things change, the more they look the same
(Score: 1) by uiginn on Friday March 28 2014, @01:17AM
I see it more as a blatant imitation of the style of OP which was appearing on Slashdot with increasing frequency this past year. The tone is typically earnest and a little chatty. The OP has a problem that the vast majority of people on this (and any tech) site can sympathise with, but the OP seems to be more extreme on every axis of symptoms than the readers. Each reader is inspired to pity them, because they see their own problems reflected in the OP, and is motivated (generously) to help by sharing how they deal with their own subset of shared symptoms (or problem with boss or similar). It's the forum version of click-bait. Most of us here know that a question phrased in certain ways is far more likely to engender multiple replies, this is just that taken to an extreme. When used correctly it can just be a boost to a genuine thread but, in my opinion, on Slashdot it became just a marketing tool.
I don't feel any sympathy for the author because, quite simply, I don't believe him. If his problems were really that bad he wouldn't have been able to write an OP in this style and sure as hell wouldn't have had the focus to learn to program.
(Score: 2) by tangomargarine on Monday March 24 2014, @04:13PM
Whooosh
A Discordian is Prohibited of Believing what he reads.
(Score: 1) by DECbot on Monday March 24 2014, @02:27PM
A lot of what is posted above is removing many of the interrupts from being triggered. AC makes a good point, instead of just focusing on removing interrupts, you could also work on improving the volume of work performed between interrupts. Of course, you'll have to have great bandwidth to swap out page files efficiently. But if it is a matter of improving the pipeline, like upgrading the HID device from a 2-finger, 10.2 words per minute transcoder to a 22 words per minute touch-typist, you'll be able to complete more tasks before you'll be required to swap out RAM during an interrupt.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by mth on Monday March 24 2014, @02:19PM
Somehow I code well in trains. I can't really explain it.
Other than that, avoiding distractions is key. Don't have any flashing notifications enabled for anything that is not super important. Don't check your mail or the news until you've reached a natural point to stop coding for a bit. One thing that might help is to put your coding related windows on a separate virtual desktop, away from unrelated windows, such that the entire "world" you see is about coding.
Coding for hours in one go is not very productive: after about 1 to 1.5 hours you'll start to make more mistakes and you won't see obvious solutions that are slightly outside the area you're focusing on. A regular short break makes you more productive. And it's also healthier to stand up once in a while.
(Score: 2) by wjwlsn on Monday March 24 2014, @02:34PM
It could simply be the rhythmic sound. I have pretty bad ADD (surprisingly bad for a guy in his 40s), and any moderately-fast and steady rhythm helps me concentrate, almost as if it helps to regulate the unruly bits of my brain.
I am a traveler of both time and space. Duh.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by michealpwalls on Monday March 24 2014, @02:30PM
It sounds like we have some similar challenges. I am attention deficit and so I get distracted extremely easily and lose interest very quickly.
The solution I've found is music... Not just any music, however! Particular music, like this Hotline Miami Soundtrack [youtube.com]. No vocals, essentially.
Vocals (Either people talking in the room, or the artist singing in the song) is very distracting even if you aren't consciously aware of it (Try blocking out all vocals sometime.. I can code for hours like that).
Once in control of the sound, I find I can code anywhere.. On the bus, the subway, in a cafe. I can't say I would try coding in a bar or club, however... Too many visual distractions :)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 24 2014, @06:24PM
When I have to code for a block of time I find listening to Evanescence on loop helps wonderfully. I singalong subvocally while my brain produces the code. Debugging and testing requires Enya or ELO; I have no idea why
(Score: 2, Interesting) by NezSez on Monday March 24 2014, @02:41PM
I find that a good "place" minimizes distractions of others, machine noise, etc, but there are other factors when coding for long periods of time as well. One is the brightness of the monitors your are using, as you mentioned, but another one for me is the chair I'm sitting in.s .html [ergoquest.com], but a little pricey, and for years there was nothing like this I could find. I will be building my own chair and desk, as I have not found anything on the market to match my needs except for outrageously expensive radiologist chairs.
I considered using one of the zero-g chairs http://www.ergoquest.com/zero-gravity-workstation
If I drink a lot of coffee while coding, eventually I get a restless leg syndrome and have to get up and move around periodically.
No Sig to see here, move along, move along...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 24 2014, @02:49PM
Your mom's house.
(Score: 1) by scruffybeard on Monday March 24 2014, @03:16PM
My favorite place to program is on my backyard deck, in the late afternoon to late evening. Weather is a factor, but I find the temperature comfortable April through early October. There is something about being outside I find relaxing, plus I was out of eye/ear shot of the wife an kids.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by fliptop on Monday March 24 2014, @03:41PM
Again, I'm encouraged by this site. I think this may be the 1st thread I've read every comment on and there were barely any mods made to the discussion. Answers were all over the place (even a flame/troll or 2) so it seems we are a diverse bunch that pretty much needs to discover our own solution to this problem.
My $0.02 - I don't think I have the ADD problem. I'm divorced now so interruptions aren't that big of a problem anymore, but I've worked from home for years w/ my computer in the dining room. When my girls were young I just learned how to tune everything out while focusing on code. If anyone came over my ex would tell them I was "in the zone" and couldn't be interrupted. If you talked to me or even touched me I'd ignore it.
It helps to be in my comfy chair but I can also get there if I have my laptop out and about. I don't like doing it much because I type a lot slower when I'm not at my regular keyboard and large monitor.
Any kind of music could be on but I usually like listening to talk radio (but never w/ headphones, for me it works better if it's barely audible, it needs to be background noise such that the keyboard drowns it out). I retain what is said on the radio, too, if a caller is making a point I can pause and listen to it and remember it, then pick right up where I was before.
It takes about 15-20 minutes to get into "the zone" and I usually stay in it for 4-5 hours. If I stay much longer than that I start making mistakes while typing, it feels like my fingers can't keep up. Once out of it, though, it takes another 15-20 minutes to get back in. Getting there usually starts w/ a game or two of Mahjongg to warm up my brain.
I don't drink coffee, either, caffeine makes me jumpy and it's harder to concentrate.
For me, the biggest distraction is food. Since I'm at home and the kitchen is close by my stomach can prematurely knock me out of the zone. When I smoked it helped to fire one up but it definitely does not help to have food w/in arm's reach or I'd be 500 lbs!
If you have second thoughts about booking a trip to an Indian casino, is it a reservation reservation reservation?
(Score: 1) by NewMexicoArt on Monday March 24 2014, @04:18PM
sitting in a mens room stall, sometimes the quietest place in an office, to come up with creative solutions, then back to the cubicle to type them in.
it also helps to work at night. very few distractions at 2:00 in the morning.
also a comfortable chair helps. found a good one with lower back support and used it for over 30 years, longer than most of the companies lasted.
(Score: 1) by Aiwendil on Monday March 24 2014, @04:40PM
1) This is the one that works better - use a specific room for work and use that room only for that.
2) Use different lights for whatever you are doing (I put one of those RGB-led-"lightbulbs" (with remotecontrol) in my desk-lamp, I use white for work, yellow for [hobby]coding, blue for bulkreading material, red for movies and so one), after a while your mood kinda changes with whatever colour you set the lamp for.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by Snotnose on Monday March 24 2014, @07:13PM
This habit actually started back in the late 70's when I was in college. I'd put an album on and work on homework. When the side was over I'd get up, flip it over, stretch, repeat. Later on when I got a CD player it turned into 40-60 minutes at a stretch. Now of course it's all MP3s but the idea is the same. Pick an album, start working, when the album is over get up, stretch, pee, look around, refill the coffee mug, pick another CD, repeat as needed.
When I get into the groove the CD is over before I know it, and I have no idea of what I listened to.
Recently I've added Coverville(.com) podcasts to the mix.