Coworker told me my morning routine was ruining team focus

Been doing the whole "deep work first thing" thing for years. Read all the productivity blogs. Then my project lead pulls me aside after a standup. Said my silent zone-out hour was making the team feel like they couldn't ask quick questions. I was blocking progress on a deadline. Switched to a 15-minute buffer for urgent stuff instead. Now I do my focus block at 10am after the morning chaos settles. Anyone else deal with pushback on a habit that was supposed to be helping?

4 comments

4 Comments

claire_gibson7d ago

Same thing happened at my shop. Had to bump my focus block to 10am too.

taylorellis6d ago

A buddy of mine tried this whole "blackout window" thing at his office and it backfired hard. He set his focus time to 9am but forgot to tell the new guy on his team, who walked right into his cubicle with a question about a broken server. His whole morning fell apart because he had to explain the system instead of getting his own work done. He ended up moving it to 10am after that and now leaves a little sign on his monitor that just says "back at quarter after." It's funny how one tiny change like that can save you from a whole mess of awkwardness.

drew_reed627d ago

Yeah that "silent zone-out hour" line really hit home. I did the same thing and my team started calling it "the blackout window" behind my back. What snapped me out of it was realizing I was protecting my own flow at the cost of everyone else's progress. I started keeping a notepad on my desk during that buffer time, just jotting down quick answers for the team without fully leaving my headspace. Then at 10am I close Slack, put on headphones, and actually get twice as much done because I'm not worried about blocking someone anymore.

faithcampbell6d ago

My "blackout window" was basically me hiding in the walk-in cooler pretending to count inventory. Drew's notepad idea is way smarter than my strategy of just hoping nobody needed me.