What is the major difference between average developers and those who really stand out? Productivity. Those who excel in development positions have learned to get the most out of their time when coding. They have learned techniques that enable them to continuously focus on delivering working software.
Increase your productivity by recognizing and reducing interruptions. Some interruptions are obvious and therefore are easy to eliminate. For instance, email and instant messaging applications interrupt the development thought process each time a new message is received. Although these communication mediums may seem innocent, they require much more than a quick alt-tab out and then back into your favorite IDE. More critically, interruptions of this sort require a change in thinking. They force you to stop thinking about the algorithm currently under development and start thinking about responding to the communication. After changing focus for only a couple seconds, you must reintroduce yourself to the problem at hand.
These types of distractions can be eliminated easily by making a decision to get rid of them. Setting aside dedicated development times with no email, phone, or instant messaging interruptions will improve your productivity exponentially. Try setting aside one-hour blocks of time with your phone, email, and instant messenger turned off. After an hour, spend five (5) or ten (10) minutes catching up on any critical communication and then return to productive development.
Read more at Developer.com.