The Zone
When we are pumped up and excited about what we are doing, we get lots done and enjoy doing what we do. This is known as being in the zone. Jono Bacon and Stuart ‘Aq’ Langridge explore what the zone is, how to get in it, and how you figure out what gets you in the zone to have a more fun and productive experience doing what you are doing.
Remember, this is the start of the conversation! What gets you in the zone? Follow our little game that we outline in the shot and let us know what you find out! what are your experiences of getting yourself in the mental headspace to be your most creative and productive? Let us know in the shot comments below…
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So here’s my three things that help me get in the zone.
Senses: Sound. I noticed that I really like the sound of the hand dryer in the gents. Makes me feel very cosy and I get a tingling sensation when I hear it. So I had a look around for sound samples of hand dryers, and listened to them. I also have noise cancelling headphones, and will often turn them on which creates a small amount of noise as well as removing the hum of computers in the office, and sometimes I don’t even put music on. It seems to put me in a closed off environment that I like. I’ve just recently found http://simplynoise.com which provides white, pink and brown noise, which I am experimenting with.
Environment: Messy and enclosed. Unfortunately I work in an open plan office which feels too open to me. However my desk is covered in clutter and this helps to close me in a little. If I ever get the urge to tidy up it always feels weird after.
People: I have to say I hadn’t really thought about this one much. However, I often get in the zone when I am set goals by other people, as long as they are attainable. I find if I really want to give up on what I’m doing and just watch a film or do something else, having my girlfriend tell me that I can do that but only after I’ve done a proper hour’s work can really get me in the zone as I’ve got something to aim for.
Well it looks like I got into the zone writing this reply! I often find myself getting in the zone with procrastination, perhaps I need to recognise that happening and once it has transfer it onto real work…
My works environment is terrible for getting focussed. It’s open plan, and I’m convinced i come home knackered because there’s too much stimulous during the day.
I’ll fess up that people affect me in a way that i’m not proud of. If i’m surrounded by people who are more intelligent than me, or are more accomplished at something, I will compete to try and raise my game to their level. However when I get surrounded by people who are less intelligent or less accomplished, unless they try hard to raise their game, I’m likely to get frustrated with them and behave arrogantly.
With music and sensory inputs, I find I have to match the stimulus to the type of task I’m doing. If it’s learning or problem solving where quality rather than quantity of thought is needed, I’ll go for classical pieces or generally calmer music. But if I need to get a volume of stuff done, i’ll go for dance, rock or metal.
When I quit smoking, I found it incredibly helpful to have an unabiguous reminder of what I wanted to acheive. I didn’t want to become a grubby old man who stinks of fags, and I also want the money to buy a Huge flat screen telly. So I got a photo of Wilfred Bramble playing Steptoe with a fag hanging out his mouth. I also got a picture of the shiny-est looking Telly i could find and printed the two pictures out and pinned them up on my desk. It’s worked, I’ve quit for over a year and you should see the size of my telly
I never would have thought of the photo thing… I might have to give that a try.
This is really interesting, I never really thought about it that way and I am starting to think I am similar too, only in that when I am working on quality I listen to AC/DC and volume I listen to Beneath The Massacre.
Ladies and gentlemen, Jono Bacon. A man who says that when he wants to relax he listens to death metal, and when he wants to get pumped up he listens to chugging death metal.
Unfortunately, I have no way of denying such a claim.
I find that I code better when I have tea and the right music. I also need to be able to see through a window.
For me, the right music is prog metal. Dream Theatre play a major part in my more productive sessions.
Do you find that the window can be distracting, or do you mainly just need sunlight?
I have found myself more productive since I have been in sunnier surrounds in Cali. I wonder if that plays a role?
When I lived with my parents, my window overlooked woodland, and for the past few years its variously overlooked gardens and rooftops.
However, at work, I’ve chosen to face a window that looks into the corridor rather than the one that looks outside (at the windows on the other side of the courtyard, which mainly act as a mirror).
I’m not sure what the exact reasoning is. I think it might be the signs of life that keep me focused (squirrels in woodlands, children playing in their gardens, people walking past the corridor).
I find I am most productive in libraries and other near-silent environments, listening to ambient/spacey music.
Like Aq, I too hate lyrics in music whenever I’m reading, coding or getting college assignments done because I cannot hear myself thinking.
Closed off cubicles and other such wall-facing environments are where I prefer to be seated, as I cannot focus when I can see things happening around me.
Another important part of my being in “the zone” is careful planning and a breakdown of tasks. I use pre-sleep time each evening to blast out lists of things that need doing the following day.
Interesting distinctions; we’ve seen discussions here already of people who like to be enclosed in a grey mist and away from distraction, and people who like having wide-open vistas through windows available to them. Rather puts the lie to the idea that it’s possible to create “an ideal hacking environment”…
I too am unable to get into the zone if there is any sort of distraction.
When I was working in public administration, I had a desk in an open space, where the clients would be in the area on the other side. Their discussion was exactly the kind of white noise I needed to get into the sphere (except when someone went Ballmer and started throwing chairs, of course).
Aq for pie drinking champion 2010!
I find that the most important element to getting myself in the zone is natural light. I’ve tried many times to set up a work environment in my basement but I just can’t focus when I’m down there. My theory is that it’s because there aren’t any windows down there to let in natural light.
If I set up a laptop on my back porch or in a room with a lot of natural light I settle right in and my productivity soars.
Interesting… now that I think about it, I’ve worked in several places and the most productive environment for me was the one with natural light. However it may be a coincidence, there were many other factors that were different, but I’ll keep it in mind.
I am coming round to the view that natural light is really important too. It has also been proven that most people have a deficiency of Vitamin D which you get from sunlight, so maybe that plays a part?
Steve Gibson of Security Now and grc.com has some interesting information on Vitamin D:
http://www.grc.com/health/vitamin-d.htm
now im one of those compulsive types who believes i need to know exactly how something works in order to work with it, be it computers or the mind. for those of you with similar tendencies as myself – likely those who dabble in philosophy proper as well – you may want to look into heidegger’s distinction between ready-to-hand and present-at-hand, which deals with just this ‘in the zone’ concept. For those with further interest theres a free translation floating around the clouds somewhere of his essay ‘was ist metaphysik’ which i found to be a great window into heidegger.
Very interesting… http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heideggerian_terminology#Present-at-Hand
Depends on what I’m doing.
Sometimes I lock the wife out and wear ear plugs.
Other times I might play wii or listen to music. Pacing around and talking to myself helps too.
The wife is very sick and tired of me talking about R, Python and every intricate interaction in environmental systems. So, I’ve found that I just like to verbalize things which is why talking to myself helps.
HOT SHOWERS work really well. I would write in the shower if I could. Many of the best laid plans first develop in the bathroom.
I can’t write and listen to music with words I understand because then I start to write the lyrics. (going to try some of this portishead)
Good beer can be very helpful but this is risky (see Ballmer Peak http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/ballmer_peak.png )
Ballmer peak is comedy.
Wow, you have lots of different types of zone generating things. Do you find it varies on the work or the days?
There’s nothing better than positive feedback from what I’m working on. I find myself muttering “cool” and “yeah” when in problem crushing mode. Unfortunately, this is very much chicken and egg type of thing. Reaching back in memory to related activity helps to trick myself just enough to get that initial propulsion to kick off.
For me, it’s a bit of a mixed bag. I need to be cut off from people I know while working, but also need feedback on my progress throughout the day. Bit sad really, but nothing gets me cranking out code faster than a back pat.
Another thing for me is just getting out of the house. Be it a coffee shop, library, friend’s office or house, doesn’t matter. I always work better when I’m forced to get dressed
The pat on the back thing refers to the importance of validation, something which I discussed in http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/4258996 which may be interesting or not to watch.
Getting out of the house is important for me sometimes too, even just to the local coffee shop. Anyone else have this?
Getting out of the house and continuing to work is harder in less enlightened places than California, where all coffee shops have plentiful power outlets and free wifi. For most places in the world, “getting out of the house” and “continuing to work” are mutually exclusive, which is really unfortunate (assuming that you are lucky enough to work from home; very few office jobs are OK with you just walking out and sitting in Starbucks for the afternoon).
Agreed: in many ways it is not just getting out of the house but getting out of the house and being able to reproduce the key bits of your office surroundings.
It’s not just about getting out of the house and continuing to work though. You’ve already discussed in Life Online Part 1 the importance of being able to unplug. When I was working from home (oh how I miss those days) I walked my son to nursery every morning. Some mornings I just didn’t feel in the mood, so I’d go for a walk around the park before I got cracking. My boss at the time said he didn’t care if I was sipping vodka in the pub at 11am as long as what needed to get done got done.
Currently I work in an open-plan office and I’m getting far too many distractions. It’s worse when my project manager is in the office, even though he hasn’t been interrupting me much lately. But most people in the office are fine with me just going for a walk around the car park to clear my mind and get some fresh air, after which I normally grab a cup of tea and sit down with a renewed focus.
Sometimes, the best way to get into the zone is to get out of it for a while.
I have a habit of tweaking my working environment often. I try out new music and other things to help me stay in the zone all the time, so my response is only indicative of recent habits.
Environment wise I like listening to something that has a strong rhythm and is almost too boringly repetitive. The best album I have found for that so far has been Alive 2007 by Daft Punk. I probably could not get through it if I were just trying to listen to it, but when I am trying to work on something I can just put it on repeat and listen to it for hours. I am not really listening to it, but the strong rhythm helps me keep moving. I have also found that having a decent keyboard helps me more than I would have thought. I used to think that all keyboards were pretty much made equal, or if not that the price difference would be way too high, and the productivity increase would be marginal. So I stuck with the cheapest keyboards that I could find. That was a mistake. I got a proper keyboard for my Birthday, and it has made all the difference in the world. My words per minute has actually gone up, and my new keyboard is actually fun to type on. I also find that caffeine helps me a hell of a lot. More than it helps some other people even. It doesn’t just wake me up and keep me alert, it actually helps me concentrate. I find that I do my best work when I am on the edge of caffeine intoxication (right about when the first of the jitters sets in). Of course, the more caffeine that you consume the less of an effect it has. However, I combat that by periodically abstaining from all caffeine for about two weeks. Caffeine is a pretty cool drug in that it forms no lasting dependencies or tolerances. After about two days all traces of the drug vanish from most people, and after two weeks the body returns to a state identical to when it had never experienced caffeine. So the next time you have caffeine it has just as much effect as the first time you had it. This trick of quitting caffeine a couple times a years makes it so I don’t have to have ridiculous amounts of it for it to have an effect.
So the three big things for me are repetitive music, a good keyboard, and caffing up.
I know people will call me crazy, but on the keyboard note I recently switched to American Simplified (aka Dvorak) and the difference was night and day, much better for my fingers, I actually type without looking at the keyboard now.
I forgot about my keyboard. It took me a few years to track down a buckling spring keyboard (that didn’t cost extortionate amounts of money), but the satisfying clicks as I type definitely form part of my ‘zone’.
Ni-ice…
What gets me in the zone is rocking back and forth in my chair. I know it sounds strange but that motion relaxes me and allows me to focus and push everything else out of my mind. I got the idea from a friend in the C.S. lab at my old college I used to tutor in because when he used to take his A.D.H.D. medicine it had the same effect on him. So, one day I noticed that when I’m really focused and concentrating I am sitting upright in my chair just rocking forward and back; not necessarily even rocking the chair, just my upper torso.
Interesting. In a similar way, I find I am more in the zone when I stretch my legs out and lay back.
What positions do other people find useful?
Hack sessions at late evening/early night seldom fails to get me in the zone, but I haven’t really reflected on why until now. At these times, I’m usually alone in the computer room, most of the lights in the apartment turned off except for a light behind my monitor, often wearing headphones even if I’m not listening to anything. Music seems not to matter much to me – today, I’ve been coding in silence, other days you’ll find me with some aggressive black metal blasting out of my headphones. Maybe I’m more focused on getting things done when that’s all I have left to do before heading to sleep – this calls for a bit of thinking.
Do let us know what conclusions you come to. I am curious to see what you come up with.
I’ve thought a little about this, and I get more easily carried away doing something completely different than I intend to when I’m not tired. The tiredness helps me focus on (or rather, limits me to) doing just one thing, instead of trying to keep control over my inbox, making sure noone on the internets are wrong, etc.
Coffee is an absolute requirement.
That said, I wonder if you guys are talking about different things: for me, engaging interest is a separate problem from achieving productivity. Energetic music can get me psyched up and interested in work, but that’s the wrong place for me to be to actually get work done.
Real productivity comes for me when I’ve got a high-but-not-too-high amount of mental energy, and I’m completely absorbed in what I’m doing, oblivious to my environment. Sometimes music can help me get there. Sometimes it’s just there as a crutch to keep me from being so bored that my mind wanders off. The stuff that I can listen to while working is generally more electronic / distortioney, with enough noise in it that I can tune it out at least partially. I find myself sometimes listening to music that I couldn’t tolerate if I had to actually pay attention to it.
If I get stuck on something, I’ll often think of a solution the morning after, in the shower. (Generally, getting away from the keyboard seems to help problem-solving.) If I’m desperate to induce immediate productivity, a bottle of Coke and Machinae Supremacy in the headphones usually works. (That music seems unique in the degree that I find it engaging and non-distracting, simultaneously.)
I have to be wearing elastic waist band pants. Whether they be pajama bottoms, sweatpants or gym shorts, it’s all good as long as they have an elastic waistband.
I use a dual monitor set up and I work best when my main screen is running a full screen window with twitter, identi.ca apps on the secondary screen. I like high energy folk like music such as The Decemberists and Gogol Bordello playing in the background, but only if I’m ignoring it. If I actually try and listen I don’t get anything done. It’s mainly there to block out other noise. Although there is something zen about my 7 fans running on my desktop
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Seven fans?! Bloody hell, are you running on an 8086?
I prefer working early morning than late afternoon/evening/night – I tend to be more likely to get “in the zone” during the morning. Music helps when I’m writing code / solving a problem rather than, say, reading a tech spec or trying to learn something new.
I’m with Jono in that metal really helps: death and black metal in particular gets me into a suitably open and relaxed frame of mind to be focused, creative and productive.
Natural light was mentioned as well, and that’s important too – probably why I don’t work well at night or in windowless rooms.
Other than that, as long as the task is suffciently interesting and I don’t have interruptions, I’ve found the zone in places like crowded offices, airport lounges, on the train or while sipping a hot chocolate in a coffee shop. I’ve never been in the zone in a shower though!
Well I thought about it and I can’t come up with much when it comes to the environment. For me it’s usually incredibly easy to get in the zone if I care in any way about what I’m doing. Whether it’s a thing of duty, pride or just the challenge I’m really productive as long as I feel (not think) that it’s worth wild. But I do seem to be more productive in the afternoon and at night and not so much in the morning.
To stay in the zone I usually listen to music. It doesn’t matter what kind of music as long as it’s not too slow. That’s a habit that I got from my physics teacher in high school. Coffee doesn’t do squat for me… if I’m there I’m there and no physiological need can stop me (and that includes sleep or hunger). If I’m not there and I actually drink coffee I won’t be able to sleep and I won’t be able to do anything.
Oh and one more thing… while listening to you guys I realized we have a word for the zone in Romanian. The word is “spor” and I’m mentioning it because it’s been in our language for a long time. I mean it’s the sort of word one would expect people from the country side to use more than the city folk.
Oh one more thing … walking helps me think usually and I do have to shut everything off if I’m thinking about a really hard problem. Otherwise I don’t care how loud it is… I’ve been known to sleep while listening to Dream Theater on headphones
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For me, getting in the zone requires a clear desk, an empty inbox and some ambient music. Natural light and fresh air also help and I find that having plenty of screen estate on my computer and plenty of desk space helps because I don’t have to switch between windows or pieces of paper so often.
I tend to listen to the ambient radio station on LastFM because it makes good background music due to there being few repeats and few catchy lyrics to sing along to!
Not being constantly interrupted is crucial.
Deadlines gets me in the zone, that and when I just start going with planning and then an hour later I have the bulk of a first draft of something done.
I have 2-10 coffees a day – I drink red bull but I rarely buy it.
Haha Enya – good old celtic mysticism.
I find that Im most productive after talking to this one local guy I meet up with sometimes.
He is genuinely interested in my project and that makes me want to work on it even more. Its different getting support from somebody face to face than over the internet.
Other than that I just need to know that nobody is gonna be calling for me otherwise I usually don’t bother doing any programming.
As for music, I just find any music quite distracting!
I find that I can adjust to my different settings with little trouble. However I do need a set routine that I go through every day. Once I have a normal routine established I am much more productive.
Coffee coffee coffee coffee coffee
I program in bed mostly although I may need to find a more professional space to work :/
I like to bounce ideas off people to because they get rid of my bad ideas.
If theres any one thing which is guaranteed to get me out of the zone, its people talcking. I really cannot concentrate if there is any noise (besides music). To get into the zone, I find that absolute silence is a must and having absolutely nobody else in the same room.
I end up doing the vast majority of my collage work at home, because I cannot get into the zone there.
I am the same: even if someone is on the phone nearby I get distracted, so I typically put on headphones.
For getting in the zone, I’ve found nothing better than talking. Like, listening to people talking.
So, when I wanted to get in the right mindset today for working for a few hours, I put on this shot, just had it rolling in the background while my mind found its space. Once I’m in there, which doesn’t take long, I put on music. I’ve got lemonjelly right now, but fatboy slim or amon tobin or something like that works well.
If I feel like I’m slipping out, I’ll out on a dialogue heavy movie. Capote was my film of choice for a few months, just put it on and have it play on a separate virtual terminal. Right now, I seem to favour Jesus Christ Superstar, for whatever reason.
Oh, and what beverage works depends on the hour of the day. Early in the morning, it’s tea. Tetley tea.
About 1pm, it switches to wine. I’ll drink a glass over maybe two and a half hours, just enough to keep the mind from becoming self conscious.
After that, I’ll switch to a combination of tea and coffee.
On the subject of music, my choice is a function of what I’m doing. If I need to think really hard then I always listen to music I’ve heard a million times before. This comforts the sub-conscience and allows me to concentrate without it interrupting with new ideas and connections.
If I’m doing menial tasks I generally listen to Radio 4, but frequently end up thinking about what they’re saying which makes me less productive.
Btw, most of my inspiration comes from the context change offered by frequent fag breaks on the balcony.
I share jonos love of metal as far as musical inspiration is concerned. I find the music of slayer, Pantera and Morbid Angel to be some of the most motivating music ever written, especially panteras “Vulgar display of power” album, Slayers “Seasons on the abyss” and Morbid Angels “Blessed are the sick”and “Domination”.
I utilize words/phrases alot too. No long mantras or prayers just little bursts that make me smile/laugh. I work in retail which can often have alot of negativity from various sources so I like to keep my pleasure stream flowing (Fuck that sounds like a fucking porno). I find quick quotes/gestures from tv shows always perk me up, favourites are anything from the mighty boosh/it crowd, The simpsons, Little britian. NO one generally knows what the fuck im talking about but it always puts a smile on my face.
Like most of you, it depends on what I’m doing that will determine what I am listening to. If I am working on something that is causing me problems, I go for silence. If I am comfortable in what I am doing then I will go for just about anything metal or rock. Porcupine Tree tends to be playing a lot when I am writing code for a website or laying out the CSS / XHTML.
The one thing that can distract me is my wife coming into my office asking me to do something for her. Can’t say NO to that.
When I am working on a project for a client, I never have my email, IRC or chat on. I make it a habit to leave all of it off.
I do some computer repair and when I am doing that, I will always throw on something heavier. Opeth tends to make it frequently to the play list, Dream Theater, Lamb of God, Meshuggah … you get the idea.
Mister Bacon… (I hesitated for some time before posting this prurient comment… about 3 seconds to be precise) in this shot, about 8 minutes 50 seconds in, you distinctly said “… I love spending time on my sofa, much to the chagrin of my back, and I love spending time on my wife…” Now I’m not sure exactly which zone you were aiming for, but I’m not sure how this is conducive to getting work done (at least in the short term).
I’m in the Zone now, hacking python. Here’s the secret: I’ve got a pair of AKG headphones: open, huge, very light and comfy, and they are blowing out the “young blood brass band” at an immense volume. The ‘phones natural sound reproduction makes for a very large sound stage, which gives the illusion of a much larger room and let’s them dissapear. When you do anything natural, anything human, you have to constantly adjust to outside influences, wind, movement and so on. Music can simulate this, which keeps you actively engaged with the world, keeps you awake. So that’s my secret.
Although unhealthy amounts of caffeine may have something to do with it as well.
The “zone” is well documented – the other name it appears under is “flow”. See wikipedia for details: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flow_%28psychology%29
@sil Regarding your “talking to a teddy bear” experiment: I found this via reddit a couple of weeks ago. Might be worth a read (and could perhaps give an explanation why your experiment failed).
Warning: pdf
http://www.computer.org/cms/Computer.org/ComputingNow/homepage/2010/0110/W_SW_PairProgramming.pdf
I find I that sometimes I get in the zone after completely distancing myself from work. If I’m doing something completely different, DIY, going for a walk etc then all the blocks I did have get resolved in my head & I’m full of ideas. When I next sit down to work I tend to be in the zone with my head clear.