Enigin Digital

Enigin Productivity Tip #3: Red Flag: The Rules

This week, we are trialling a new ‘red flag’ system in the Enigin development department. We had our designer, Alan, create some flags which we attach to our Apple Cinema Displays with the help of Cocktail stirrers and bluetak. When we want some ‘concentration’ time we simply set the flag to the upright position, indicating that we don’t want to be disturbed unless it’s an emergency.

Here’s the full set of rules:

• If the flag is in the upright position, then Enigin staff are encouraged not to disturb us unless absolutely necessary.
• If an interruption is absolutely non-avoidable, then email is the preferred method of communication. Simply put ‘Urgent’ in the subject line.
• The flag is only allowed to be raised for 3 hours at any one time. This allows your colleagues a period of time to get answers to their questions.
• No sales calls should be forwarded to a ‘Red Flagger’
• We have yet to come up with a punishment for Red Flag abusers, but rest assured, staff in violation will be dealt with swiftly!

If you work for Enigin and would like your very own flag, then these can be purchased from the Development department for the tiny sum of £1.00

Enigin Productivity Tip #2: Deciding what is important

One aspect of productivity is deciding which of your current tasks are important and which can wait. You will know instinctively which tasks you should place in high priority, as these are the tasks which are giving you the most ‘hassle’ at that time. ‘Hassle’ maybe in the form of a customer who keeps contacting you, a fellow staff member putting pressure on you or an order may have come down from the Enigin Management team for some work which needs urgent attention.

I mentally sort my tasks in to the following categories:

Urgent - This needs to be your number one focus until such time as it’s complete, nothing is more important and your life will be easier once it’s over. Having more than 1 task in the ‘Urgent‘ category will probably increase your stress level!

Important - These are tasks which are time-sensitive and need completing as soon as possible. If you’re not careful then ‘Important’ tasks can soon get elevated to ‘Urgent‘

Other - These are items which you’ve discussed with a co-worker and the phrase “when you’ve got time” is heard. Not time-sensitive, but tasks from ‘Other‘ can at anytime be elevated to ‘Important‘

Many people promote the use of a ‘all singing all dancing’ task management application, but I find that simplicity is the way forward. At Enigin, I started by using a pen and paper but then moved on to using TadaList by 37signals about 5 months ago. I am now considering moving back as there is something satisfying about drawing a real line through your tasks as they are complete!

You can also use your email inbox as a task list, but this has a huge drawback… it means that anyone can add items to your task list without asking you first!!

Enigin Productivity Tip #1: Getting in ‘The Zone’

An office environment can sometimes be a hotpot for attention-seeking noises and activities. Telephones ringing, Enigin staff talking, customers visiting, emails arriving, meetings, air conditioning units and the list goes on! Even if we try not to listen and pay attention to this interference, our minds are inquisitive devices and you can often find your focus wondering.

The development department at Enigin is lucky as we have the benefit of a separate enclosed office but still sometimes the ‘outside world’ invades our space!

This may sound like a rant, but actually it’s a real problem. As programmers, we need to focus all our efforts on the job in hand, as writing software code takes a great deal of concentration and mistakes are easily made. You often hear developers talk about getting in ‘The Zone’. ‘The Zone’ is a state of mind when you are 100% focused on your software, you can almost visualise the application coming together as you type and generally you are thinking 3/4 steps ahead of where you are. For me personality, it takes about 20 minutes to get into this state. So now, that tiny amount of interruption to your ‘flow’ actually takes 20 minutes out of your fully productive day.

One method I use is to wear headphones during the day. Sometimes I don’t even have music playing! I find they block out many of the high-frequency sounds in the office. If the Enigin office is particularly noisy, for example when our air conditioning unit is running, then I tend to blast out music fairly loudly from my ‘phones. Interestingly enough, I find it really easy to concentrate when listening to loud Dance and House music! As a hugh Jazz fan, this is very puzzling and against my natural tendencies!

I’m sure there will be many more articles on productivity as it’s a hot topic with me at the moment!

Productive home working for this Enigin Developer!

One day a week Enigin encourage me to work from home, and I love it!

Why is this? Well, home working has the following benefits:

1. No commuting - This saves me a round trip of 2 hours a day!
2. No interruptions - People are less likely to interrupt you when you’re not in the office and only ask you urgent questions.
3. Flexible working - Although I do put in a full 7/8 hour day when i’m working from home, I don’t necessarily work 9 - 5. I find that breaking the working day up into 3 hour periods with breaks between helps to stay motivated.
4. Relaxing Environment - Sometimes an office environment is counter-productive; telephones ringing, people chatting, meetings. Being completely in charge of my own environment means that I can set my own mood!