The Unseen Cost of Notifications in Software Development

Apr 6

There is one thing that is invaluable in the world of software development. It separates the brilliant developer from the mediocre. It’s a single word but an essential one.

Focus.

I’ve been fired for being unable to focus.

I’m not the only one, because feel that? Your phone is buzzing about a payment your partner made. There’s a ping from your machine and Praveen wants something on Slack. Then your watch tells you to stand.

Tech is working against us. We need to act now!

Nudges

These nudges demand our attention, and some are work-based and some not so much so. Any interruption might be your mother, an issue with your code, or a sale at Target.

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These distractions have become the accompaniment to our daily grind. They’re impinging on our workflow as the work we need to do requires us to focus for long periods and distractions break this concentration.

These electronic nudges mean that we cannot get as much work done as we might, and the quality suffers.

Flow

I think one of the goals of a successful workday is to enter cognitive flow and get so caught up in work that time passes easily.

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi himself describes flow like this:

“Flow is being completely involved in an activity for its own sake. The ego falls away. Time flies. Every action, movement, and thought follows inevitably from the previous one, like playing jazz.”

Which sounds like a great day coding. You’re in the zone and get that feature complete and that bug gets squashed. When you’re distracted it can take 20+ minutes to return to flow, as evidenced in a famous empirical study.

In a field where uninterrupted time is the lifeblood of innovation, these interruptions are not just annoyances; they’re a direct threat to productivity and success.

Notifications are awful

This threat isn’t anecdotal, email makes you sweat with stress. When you feel burnout coming that might just be because burnout is coming to you, and this is all too common in the tech world.

The price we pay is finding it difficult to work and bring our performance up to a respectable level. When distracted we need to regain our attention, which is another task on our ever-increasing pile of things to do.

I’ve witnessed firsthand how the allure of immediate response can derail a day’s work. A colleague once mentioned they feel like they’re constantly playing whack-a-mole with notifications, battling to keep their head above water. They can’t seem to get into any task, and it is directly affecting the quality of their work. I can see a PiP coming and worry about what the outcome of it might be.

Notification Hygiene Tips

Going off-grid isn’t a solution when software development depends on connectivity.

However, we can practice notification hygiene.

Set specific times to check emails and messages.
Use Do Not Disturb modes judiciously to protect periods of deep work.
Disable the non-essential notifications.
Foster a culture that respects boundaries and understands that not every message warrants an immediate response.

Sure, we aren’t all in a position to create a culture. Yet we can choose which culture we work in which is at least something!

Conclusion

The path to reclaiming our focus from the jaws of notification overload is not a solitary one. It requires a collective shift in how we perceive and interact with our digital tools.

We need to set our boundaries. Pay attention to what is important. Do what we can to mitigate the impact of these incessant pings on our productivity and well-being.

At least it’s something in our control though, right?

The Secret Developer