The Benefits of Uninterrupted Focus Time

I love <a href="https://medium.com/@subcide/five-productivity-tools-i-use-daily-cac328e84fc4" rel="noopener">productivity tools</a>. I think part of having the mindset of a designer is that the tasks you have to perform to get a thing done, often feel sub-optimal or unnecessarily difficult or unclear. When a little app comes along and solves a little problem (especially one you have multiple times a day), it feels great to optimize those little annoyances out of your life. 3 seconds here, 25 seconds there, they all add up over time in ways you don’t often realize until you try to use a new machine that doesn’t have these apps installed. Having said that, as much as I love these optimizations, I have to be honest that when it comes to actual productivity, they are a drop in the bucket when compared to having large chunks of uninterrupted focus time. <h1>A modest proposal</h1> In early 2020, Onfido’s VP of Design <a href="https://twitter.com/mopland" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" target="_blank">Mark Opland</a> managed to get tech-wide (Product, Design, Engineering) buy in for a focus time initiative. Every Tuesday and Thursday morning from the start of the day until lunch would be a block of dedicated focus time. During this time, everyone on the team is given permission to decline meetings and do what they need to focus on work without interruption. If two people want to meet about something and are both OK with it, sure they’re allowed. But no team meetings, recurring meetings, or anything that would put pressure on people to break that focus time. <a href="https://betterhumans.pub/the-benefits-of-uninterrupted-focus-time-945525f1dab5">Click Here</a>