If you have read Getting Things Done, then you can already guess what I’m about to write here: lean heavily on your inbox. If you haven’t read Getting Things Done, then you need to know what I mean.
The old joke says that computer programmers are very good at figuring out what needs to be done, but pretty bad at figuring out what might need to be done. Programming is already a task that demands making a large number of decisions at varying scales. If you put these two issues together, then you end up in a situation where programmers are routinely attacked by unplanned, unexpected work. It really taxes the programmer’s working memory. And most of the programmers I’ve worked with over the decades have not had a system for handling this. Result? Chaos.
Fortunately, building a system is not very difficult, although it demands some humility that some programmers might find difficult to summon. Some programmers wear their ability to stretch their working memory as a badge of honor. I might have done that when I was young and foolish, but as early as my 30s I recognized that this was hubris. Bravado. Ego.
Don’t bother. Nobody’s really watching.
Instead, use Inbox Technique to gradually train yourself to become (mostly) unaffected by distractions while programming. With Inbox Technique, I drove the cost of distractions down near zero. I felt free. I felt lighter.
And I made fewer mistakes. I became more reliable. More trustworthy. That is something that people might actually notice.