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Conext Switching is a massive part of coding / development / engineering and managing. I have wondered if there should be a book written out there, for management staff, that highlights the dangers of too much context switching in your employees schedule.
So an easy example of this is your working on a medium to long term project and something of high priority comes up and you've got to switch on to it. Spending a few hours or more on this high priority project means you have lost all of the context to the original project, the variables, designs and implementation all your plans ruined. You switch back to the original and now have to take the time to build up that context again.
Drives me mad, anyway does anyone have any techniques for clearing their head between tasks / context switching? Between tasks or projects I close everything down, every window, notepad, IDE, browser etc until I've got my basic windows which enable me to start a new project. This ritual makes me feel like I'm "clearing" the context of previous work from my mind.
Simon Lee Shugar (Software Developer)
www.simonshugar.co.uk
"If something goes by a false name, would it mean that thing is fake? False by nature?" By Gilbert Durandil
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Yeah - one thing to do is to divide your day into segments for different things (I think 45 minute blocks is good) and when you are in a coding block turn off the email and disconnect the phone.
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I don't know, but 4 Disciplines of Execution[^] may provide some insights into effective management to deliver goals. This is the book our company gave to all the managers and team leads at our latest operations conference in February.
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Reviews look good might give it a go myself, have you read it Dave? What do you think of it?
Simon Lee Shugar (Software Developer)
www.simonshugar.co.uk
"If something goes by a false name, would it mean that thing is fake? False by nature?" By Gilbert Durandil
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Not read it thoroughly, have it on my desk though (at home!)....
They do focus on Wildly Important Goals (WIGs), although I'm happy with my baldy head, each of the managers in the company has to have 2 WIGs, and each 2 persons WIGs must be able to talk directly to/influence their immediate bosses 2 WIGS etc. all the way up the chain. It does make you focus more and make sure you make an effort on the critically important stuff rather than getting caught up in the whirlwind of the day to day stuff.
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Well may be you will be used to it if that is frequently happen to you. in my current company i always work on two or three project together and among them one of the project i am handling from last 2 years. initially it will give you some headache but later on you will be used to it. you can always divide your task based on priority. 
Ravi Khoda
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This is something I struggle with. I think software needs a great deal of focus, so switching from one project to another I find difficult. When I get to the point that I'm doing about 5 things at once, overall progress comes to pretty much a standstill. You have to start writing things down, as you'll never remember everything. Thread local storage, as it were.
There are only two things I can suggest - firstly be prepared to say no to whoever is asking for stuff and secondly don't let it stress you out (activate your "don't care" gene..)
I don't smoke any more, but stepping out the office used to be good when things were getting too much. Have you thought of taking up smoking/smoking more?
*EDIT* That's probably bad advice.
Regards,
Rob Philpott.
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I am afraid I could never smoke but having a walk might be another idea.
I am using whiteboards at the moment... to manage a lot of projects. Going home with a head ache each day I try to shut my brain down to a minimum during the commute home, which might also be bad advice!
Simon Lee Shugar (Software Developer)
www.simonshugar.co.uk
"If something goes by a false name, would it mean that thing is fake? False by nature?" By Gilbert Durandil
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Have a separate (physical) notebook or at least sections in a notebook for the different projects, so you have some place that you write down 'context' so you can come back to it.
If the projects don't require the same software, or you can start multiple instances, I like to leave all the windows for everything I'm working on open. Minimise the ones you don't care about but leave them open so when you switch back to that project, all the context is just as you left it. You could even use VMs, one per project, to get really good separation without complete loss of project context.
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BobJanova wrote: If the projects don't require the same software, or you can start multiple instances, I like to leave all the windows for everything I'm working on open. Minimise the ones you don't care about but leave them open so when you switch back to that project, all the context is just as you left it. You could even use VMs, one per project, to get really good separation without complete loss of project context.
This is where something like Sysinternal's Desktops[^] can come in handy.
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Simon Lee Shugar wrote: you have lost all of the context to the original project, the variables, designs and implementation all your plans ruined.
That's usually a sign of two things for me:
1. If I was in some process where I needed to keep a mental stack of all this stuff, then I should finish the process. Very few "high priority" projects ever actually live up to their name, and yes, it'll piss off the manager, which is why I work for myself, because at least then there's only one idiot making decisions, not a corporation full of them. 
2. And more relevant, just like the idea of keeping your functions small, if I'm dealing with a large stack in my head, it usually means that the code is bad. It's actually one of my "red flags" warning signs -- the code is too entangled, the process / workflow / whatever is too complex and not easily understood, and so forth. When that happens, I take a step back and ask myself, "how would I change the code so that it's not such a mental effort to work with it?" and the result is usually much, much better code.
Of course, neither #1 or #2 are carved in stone, but they are at signposts along the road to hell that I try to pay attention to.
Marc
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My rule is, if it isn't on fire, it can wait for a few minutes/hours/days until I reach a good stopping point in my current task. I then make notes sufficient to remind me of what I was doing, where, and why, and then switch.
Software Zen: delete this;
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Can't work as I have forgotten my glasses home and can't be asked to go back home to pick it up as I will be going home during lunch anyway. So need to act as if am working for next two hours. 
My eye sight isn't that bad as I can type this post, so hopefully I will be able to get some work done.
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So you are OK - if I remove glasses I can't see my fingers on the keyboard...
I'm not questioning your powers of observation; I'm merely remarking upon the paradox of asking a masked man who he is. (V)
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I can see my fingers; I just can't see what keys they're on. 
"These people looked deep within my soul and assigned me a number based on the order in which I joined."
- Homer
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Kornfeld Eliyahu Peter wrote: if I remove glasses I can't see my fingers on the keyboard...
I doubt if you would have made it out of the house without your glasses let alone all the way to work.
The report of my death was an exaggeration - Mark Twain
Simply Elegant Designs JimmyRopes Designs
I'm on-line therefore I am.
JimmyRopes
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 I'm so glad my eyes aren't that bad... yet
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Did you mean to post this on Mumsnet?
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You mean this isn't mumsnet?
Why is if full of children then? 
Those who fail to learn history are doomed to repeat it. --- George Santayana (December 16, 1863 – September 26, 1952)
Those who fail to clear history are doomed to explain it. --- OriginalGriff (February 24, 1959 – ∞)
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OriginalGriff wrote: Why is if full of children then?
It isn't. It's just that peoples spelling skills make it look that way.
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P0mpey Returns wrote: It's just that peoples spelling skills make it look that way.
That explains a lot about QA...
Those who fail to learn history are doomed to repeat it. --- George Santayana (December 16, 1863 – September 26, 1952)
Those who fail to clear history are doomed to explain it. --- OriginalGriff (February 24, 1959 – ∞)
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P0mpey Returns wrote: peoples spelling skills
And as for their punctuation skills... 
"These people looked deep within my soul and assigned me a number based on the order in which I joined."
- Homer
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It's KidzzzNet.
BTW, well done on hitting the magic million; very well deserved.
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