Double Your Productivity

Around 24 years ago, I read the book Rapid Development, by Steve McConnell (Microsoft Press, 1996). I bold Microsoft for a reason which we will address later. Anyhow, in that book (if memory serves), I learned that the typical software developer requires 20 minutes to reach "cruising speed", at which point they become fully productive. When they are interrupted, they crash back down to first gear, and they need to accelerate again. I knew this intuitively at the time because I seemed to able to get as much work done in one uninterrupted Saturday morning as I could in two days of the typical work week with continuous distractions. I searched for recent research on this topic, and I found a report of knowledge workers requiring 16 minutes to recover. Another asserted 24 minutes. With my analytics background and data visualization knowledge, I decided to represent this concept graphically. I stuck with a 20 minute recovery for the analysis below, as this was the original number that I recall and the average of the other two sources.

I graphed productivity for an Interrupted Day, conservatively assuming about:

- 50 emails with notification turned on and immediate reply

- 10 Skype / Teams/ Slack IMs or flashes on the Task Bar

- 10 personal smart phone interruptions

- 5 Coworker conversations

- 4 Restroom breaks

- 4 Thirty-minute meetings with people multi-tasking and not working higher than level 5

- 3 Food/Coffee stoppages

The results:

Total Productivity: 2,674 Mean Productivity: 5.57 Median Productivity: 4

I then graphed a Time Blocked Day, assuming:

- Two 90-minute time blocks that are uninterrupted Do Not Disturb work periods. No breaks. Flat out productivity (cell phone down, noise canceling headphone on). In the real world, these periods would shift as needed in the AM and PM to allow the knowledge worker to attend meetings.

- No email interruptions. Email is processed in bulk in this model at certain periods of the day. Currently, this email bulk processing is lumped in with other "Uninterrupted Work", but it should probably be its own set of 3-4 limited productivity periods, which would reduce the overall positive effect of time-blocking.

The results?:

Total Productivity: 5,921 Mean Productivity: 12.34 Median Productivity: 13

While the numbers and assumptions may need to be tweaked (and a data scientist could run a simulation of 10,000 days), I think the graphs fairly represent the conclusions of existing research: knowledge workers can vastly increase productivity by minimizing interruptions and being allowed to time-block two 90-minute Do Not Disturb sessions per day.

Why did I emphasize Microsoft earlier? Because my organization is moving to Microsoft Teams. Within Teams, even when a user is on Do Not Disturb status, a distracting notification of activity appears on the task bar. It's discouraging that highly important knowledge is not even passed down to the next generation within an organization, especially when it should be common knowledge throughout the modern workforce. By some quick back-of-the-envelope calculations, this "feature" may be burning as much as $1 billion per month in lost productivity across the Teams user base. (Workaround: Don't put Teams on your task bar. It will still run in the background, and you can access it via the show hidden icons carat.)

So, limit your interruptions. Lump together stoppages like email, eating, restroom breaks, and chatting. Take these charts to your management. Putting the customer first does not mean being at their continuous beck and call. Delivering correct results on time will be appreciated much more than instant responses to IMs, and you can deliver those results by increasing productivity through not being disturbed.

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