Getting back on track after disruptions [closed]

Question

Over the past few weeks it seems like I've been interrupted by maintenance tasks from old projects quite a bit in addition to a taking a training class. I feel like I've lost all forward momentum on my current project. It's difficult to even start coding because I'm not sure what I was doing and what I was thinking before the interruption.

What tips or techniques do you have to help make it easier to get restarted after an interruption that takes you away from your current project for a couple of hours or days?

Answer 1

• Take a minute to write notes to yourself (on paper right in front of you) about the project you're putting down before you go and pick another up

• Still messed up? Headphones on, music on, loud enough to drown out your surroundings and no lyrics

• Really messed up? Go for lunch, take a walk, get out in the air and don't come back til the interruption has faded

• Really really messed up? Don't accept interruptions any more. Be really firm about this with colleagues and managers. If you need to ringfence yourself to get stuff done they should be able to appreciate that, at the end of the day what's efficient for you is efficient for them.

Answer 2

Some of my techniques include

1. Documentation. This gets you thinking about your project. If it's not easy to describe, it's probably not elegant enough yet
2. Static Code Analysis - FxCop, Lint, Cyclomatic Complexity, Security Analyzers. Now is a good time to step back from your code and check on best practices
3. Unit Tests. This again gets you thinking about the code and how to improve it.