A better way to focus

Recently I was in a programming class learning about web services. About 2 days into the class I thought to myself that I was really absorbing a lot of knowledge. I wasn’t surprised by the instructor’s questions and I asked what I thought were good questions. I then realized that the whole time I was in the class I was really focused.

As in more focused than I would have been if I had been at work. Only two days had gone by, but I felt like I had accomplished a lot. I wondered why this was the case. I was excited about the class, but there was something else going on. Then I realized what it was.

There was no internet access at our desks. We were prevented from checking our email or surfing the web while the class was going on. During our regular breaks we could go out and get on one of the internet terminals, but at our desks, it was all buisness.

I’ve heard that to increase your productivity you should turn off your email notifier (i.e. the little popup window). I think tomorrow at work I’m going to turn off my internet access (i.e. not leave Outlook and Firefox running) and see what it does for me.

I have a suspicion I’ll find I can get more done if I’m not spending time running around on the web.