Focus On The Right Things - Lessons From Dan Ariely

What is focus (and what it is NOT)

I used to think of focus as an ability to sit down and do one thing without interruption for a long period of time.

I was wrong. And I was frustrated.

Seeing focus in such light and not being able to do it made me miserable. I saw no way out, now way to improve.

At some point I came across another way of viewing focus.

Focus is about realizing that I am distracted and choosing to come back to what I was doing before.

Viewing focus in this way helped me to regain power. It is still hard to do but I know where to practice and how.

But you want your focus to go to the right things.

Applying the following 3 concepts I came across following Dan Ariely's work help me do exactly that:

1. Progression markers
2. Choice Architecture
3. Ego depletion

1. Progression markers

It’s easy to feel progress answering emails, going through slack messages and catching up on JIRA comments.

Working on a bigger project, it is much harder.

A bug can take a few days to even find a root cause.

A bigger feature needs hours of research, planning, design, understanding and trial and error.

Progression marker: Version control

If you’re working with a pen, you have evidence of all the things you’ve done. You can see your path. But if you work on a computer, it’s just the current state of the work - you don’t have the previous versions. Dan Ariely

We as developers have great tool for visualizing progress, version control. You’re probably using Git. Here's how you can use it as progression marker:

• Commit every single tiny step
• Stop for a second and give that step a name, commit.
• After you’re done for today run git log and see the progress you've done
• Squash all your commits to one if you want a clean history later on

Progression marker: Process Goals

If your goal is to finish the feature, or fix the bug at the end of the day you may score 0.

This is an outcome goal. You’re focused on one specific outcome and if it's not reached, you feel no progress.

You can also use process goals. Process goals means that your goal is to work 2 hours on the bug. If you work in chunks of 30 minutes, you can score 4 such chunks and achieve your process goal.

4 is better than 0.

Much more satisfying.

2. Choice Architecture

A study by Ralph Keeney shows that human mortality from bad decision making was at 10% one hundred years ago.

It have grown x4 since then and is over 40% today. We invented new ways to execute bad judgement:

• Texting and driving
• Smoking
• etc

While not that deadly, giving in to the distracting temptations of our daily work as developers kills our productivity, self image and at the end of the day our achievements.

Another study found that the arrangement of different foods at a buffet mattered in what people actually chose.

Putting multiple stands with water bottles across the hospital staff cafeteria increased the water consumption and reduced consumption of Coke.

This is called Choice Architecture. Making good choices default and easy ensures we do what actually matters more often.

A few ideas to leverage it:

• Put the phone in "busy mode" - you don't need to decide every if you want to pick up the phone. It just doesn't ring
• Blocking off calendar for focused work - you don't need to feel guilty declining a last minute meeting. It won't be schedule in the first place
• Close off tabs you don't need right now - the barrier to go check a news site becomes a bit higher if its not in the tab next to yours.
• IP/App blocking apps - even if I try, it blocks me from opening a certain app or website during certain hours. After a few times I stop trying.

3. Ego depletion

We tend to make bad choices when under stress. Every time you say a conscious 'No' to a distraction during the day, next time becomes a bit harder.

Saying 'No' later during the day becomes almost impossible.

This is called Ego Depletion.

Understanding that concept is half the battle. Now I can try and work around it.

Best ways I found to combat it, is twofold:

1. Use choice architecture from the previous point - try to avoid needing to make a decision in the first place and make the right one a default.
2. Not combatting it at all. It might seem counterintuitive but making some time to do those distracting, non productive things helps me "get it out my system".

That's it for today.

P.S. What point spoke the most to you? Hit reply, I read and answer every email I get.