A Good Pair of Headphones

When I started this career path, I was in a bustling office space where 90% of the IT team was in the office five days a week. To learn what I needed to and make progress to get to the next development level a great pair of noise-cancelling headphones was a must. There were not enough quiet areas in the building to finish work without them. As I grew in my career, the amount of time "in the zone" working on hard problems alone became more and more sporadic.

Stepping out of the individual contributor roles and into lead roles. The number of meetings and planning activities increased. Which requires collaboration with teammates. For me these activities have not been particularly taxing, requiring deep focus time that writing software does. In the lead role, there is a greater absence of owing a work item from start to finish. Generally, any item I pick up to work on is done with someone. Such that, if the situation changes and I am needed elsewhere progress does not stop. As a leader, I think it is a horrible idea for you to be on the critical execution path.

In the consulting world, the ability to gain focus was even more difficult as a team lead. A client could call or message at any moment taking you away from what is important. We would answer the phone or message every time under the guise of "exceptional customer service". With my newer role on a product team, we are working on a greenfield project. Planning the road that lay before the team, changing how the team operates for maximum gain. With the team operating smoothly, I had to put myself back into a seat where deep thinking was mandatory.

For months I struggled with getting back into the zone. Problems seemed over my head, foggy, and distant. I know I have solved many similar problems like these in my years behind this keyboard. What was different? First, my age and sharpness came to mind. I'm not that old? Am I? I refuse to believe it. So at night after the house was in bed, I began to experiment. The first experiment was in a quiet room, which yielded decent results. But, it was not what I remember. In the second experiment, I left my phone well outside of arm's reach. Sometimes in the same room, other times on a different floor altogether. Then, listening to music softly over a little speaker on my desk. Finally, the "ah-ha!" moment. I pulled out a similar pair of noise-canceling headphones from when I started this career.

Popping the headphones on created my world. Some music without words can melt into the background freeing the creative juices to flow. Or some music that I know all the words to by heart where there is no concentrating on what is going on around me. Just focus on the problem at hand. Such as writing this blog post! As I travel from my home office to the corporate office, the headphones go with me. They are my ability to escape the distraction of the world to focus on what I love to do, solve problems.