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Leitura de 12 min

2: Focus

Summary

In this episode, host Jonathan Cottrell explores the concept of focus, arguing it is the most critical skill for developers to cultivate. He opens with a Steve Jobs quote that redefines focus not as saying yes to one thing, but as saying no to a hundred other good ideas. This sets the stage for a discussion on the intentional protection of one’s chosen task from distractions and competing priorities.

Cottrell firmly debunks the myth of multitasking, citing studies that show it reduces IQ and drastically increases the time to complete tasks due to the cognitive cost of ‘task switching.’ He illustrates this with a simple writing experiment and references research indicating that even a brief interruption can cost at least 15 minutes of recovery time. The conclusion is clear: attempting to multitask leads to lower quality, less efficient work.

The core practical advice offered is the principle of ‘pull over push.’ This means proactively initiating consumption of information (like checking email) rather than allowing notifications, calendars, or people to interrupt you. Actionable steps include turning off push notifications, setting ‘do not disturb’ modes, and establishing clear office hours with colleagues to safeguard focused work time.

Finally, Cottrell emphasizes that embracing focus requires responsibility and intentionality. You must actively ‘pull’ tasks and information, which may mean letting go of non-essential inputs like certain email digests. The ultimate payoff is higher quality, more innovative work, achieved by saying no to a thousand things to say yes to the one that truly matters.

Recommendations

Articles

  • Forbes article on multitasking and IQ — Mentioned in the episode, this article quotes a study indicating that multitasking can cause an IQ drop of 5 to 15 points.

People

  • Steve Jobs — Quoted at the beginning of the episode on the true meaning of focus: ‘Innovation is saying no to 1,000 things.‘

Topic Timeline

  • 00:00:14 — Introduction to focus with a Steve Jobs quote — Jonathan Cottrell introduces the episode’s topic: focus. He shares a Steve Jobs quote that redefines focus as saying no to many good ideas, not just saying yes to one. This frames focus as an act of protection and careful selection.
  • 00:02:04 — Why focus is the most important skill for developers — Cottrell states that focus is the most important skill for developers to cultivate, essential for efficiency, productivity, and high-quality work. He asserts that without focus, work becomes inefficient and of low quality, directly linking it to the pitfalls of multitasking.
  • 00:03:05 — The multitasking experiment and task switching cost — The host describes a simple experiment to prove multitasking is inefficient: writing three words sequentially vs. interleaving letters. This demonstrates ‘task switching,’ which is cognitively taxing. He cites studies showing multitasking lowers IQ and that interruptions cost at least 15 minutes of recovery time.
  • 00:05:46 — Practical advice: The ‘pull over push’ principle — Cottrell offers the key piece of advice: ‘pull over push.’ This means you should initiate consumption of media, emails, and tasks rather than letting notifications or people interrupt you. Actionable steps include turning off push notifications and setting office hours to protect focused work time.
  • 00:07:38 — Responsibility and intentionality in focused work — Adopting a ‘pull’ model increases personal responsibility, as you must proactively check for tasks and communication. It may require letting go of non-essential information streams. The payoff is worth the intentional effort, leading to better work and true innovation through selective focus.

Episode Info

  • Podcast: Developer Tea
  • Author: Jonathan Cutrell
  • Category: Technology Business Careers Society & Culture
  • Published: 2015-01-05T17:30:00Z
  • Duration: 00:09:44

References

Podcast Info

Transcript

[00:00:00] Hello everyone, and welcome to Developer Tea, episode two.

[00:00:05] My name is Jonathan Cottrell, I’m your host, and today we’re talking about focus.

[00:00:14] I’m going to open with a quote from Steve Jobs, and I know that you’re probably thinking

[00:00:18] right away, oh no, here’s another podcast where we talk about Steve Jobs all the time.

[00:00:23] But this particular quote from Steve Jobs, I don’t think is a very highly publicized

[00:00:28] one, and I promise you that I’m going to limit my Steve Jobs quotes in the future.

[00:00:32] But I think it really speaks to a lot of what I want to talk about today with reference

[00:00:37] to focus.

[00:00:38] And here’s the quote, people think focus means saying yes to the thing you’ve got

[00:00:43] to focus on, but that’s not what it means at all.

[00:00:47] It means saying no to the hundred other good ideas that there are.

[00:00:52] You have to pick carefully.

[00:00:54] I’m actually as proud of the things we haven’t done as the things I have done.

[00:00:59] Innovation is saying no to 1,000 things.

[00:01:04] I chose this quote because I think it outlines a really important part of focus that we

[00:01:09] tend to forget, and that is that when we choose one thing to focus on, it’s

[00:01:16] not just about doing as much of that one thing as possible.

[00:01:22] It’s also about choosing to protect ourselves from the other things that we could choose

[00:01:28] to do instead of that one thing.

[00:01:30] For example, if you are making a New Year’s resolution this year and you say, I want

[00:01:38] to go to the gym three nights a week or four nights a week, you are choosing not

[00:01:45] to do something else for four nights a week.

[00:01:49] That requires a significant amount of focus.

[00:01:53] Focus is also about commitment and about dedication, but ultimately it’s about protecting

[00:01:58] that decision, and focus is absolutely about a decision.

[00:02:04] I chose focus as the very first thing to talk about on developer tea because I think

[00:02:10] that focus is absolutely the most important skill for developers to cultivate.

[00:02:14] I say that without reservation.

[00:02:17] Focus is the thing that is necessary to make us efficient and productive developers.

[00:02:23] It’s also necessary to make our work high quality, so without focus then you could

[00:02:29] assume that your work will be inefficient, your work will be of low quality.

[00:02:36] Specifically, if you try to multitask, your work quality is going to go into the

[00:02:41] drain.

[00:02:42] If you try to multitask, you’re going to realize that you get less done per day than

[00:02:47] if you were to focus on one thing at a time.

[00:02:50] There’s study after study after study that backs this up.

[00:02:54] The first thing that you have to be convinced of in order to seek focus in your life is

[00:03:01] that multitasking is completely out of the question.

[00:03:04] You’re not going to be able to multitask.

[00:03:05] I’m going to show you this with a very simple experiment.

[00:03:10] It’s a pretty common one that you’d find online as well.

[00:03:13] What you’ll do is you’ll take out a piece of paper and think of three of your closest

[00:03:17] friends’ names or just three words.

[00:03:21] Write down those three words one after the other and time yourself while you’re writing

[00:03:25] them down.

[00:03:26] After you’ve timed this task, what you’ll do is you’ll write those same three words

[00:03:31] but alternate between those words and write one letter at a time.

[00:03:37] Let’s say that your three words were apple, orange, and pear.

[00:03:41] You would write the A for apple, the O for orange, and the P for pear.

[00:03:45] Then you go back up and continue down the line of the letters.

[00:03:49] What you’ll find, not surprisingly, is that it takes you a significantly longer

[00:03:55] amount of time to do the second way than it would to just simply write out the first

[00:04:00] way.

[00:04:01] There’s a lot of reasons for this, but the main one is that you’re not actually

[00:04:04] multitasking when you’re writing all of these one letter at a time.

[00:04:08] You’re spending most of your energy switching between each of these words.

[00:04:14] This is called task switching.

[00:04:16] This is actually a very well studied thing.

[00:04:19] Task switching is incredibly taxing on our brains.

[00:04:23] There’s a Forbes article that quotes a study that says that when people try to

[00:04:27] multitask, their IQ drops by between five and 15 points.

[00:04:32] That means you’re literally going to be dumber when you are multitasking.

[00:04:37] So it’s not just about speed, it’s also about quality.

[00:04:41] There’s also another study that talks about interruption.

[00:04:44] So if you’re interrupted by, for instance, a text message or somebody coming up behind

[00:04:49] you and tapping you on the shoulder, or if you interrupt yourself by maybe

[00:04:52] procrastinating and hopping over to Twitter or something like that, it takes you at

[00:04:57] least 15 minutes to return to where you were before the interruption.

[00:05:03] This alone is enough to make me reconsider whether or not I should try

[00:05:09] multitasking.

[00:05:10] So we know now, first of all, multitasking is a myth.

[00:05:14] It’s nearly impossible to multitask.

[00:05:16] It certainly is impossible to multitask and be more productive than if we were

[00:05:21] to do one thing at a time.

[00:05:24] We also know that focus is about saying no to so many other things and saying yes

[00:05:31] to only one thing at a time.

[00:05:34] Focus is definitely one of the most important skills for developers to

[00:05:38] cultivate.

[00:05:39] So I want to provide you with a very simple piece of advice as you move

[00:05:42] forward and try to gain more focus in your day-to-day work.

[00:05:46] Pull over push.

[00:05:48] Just remember, pull over push.

[00:05:51] What this means is that your consumption of media and your consumption of emails

[00:05:58] and tasks and even conversations, they should all be initiated by you.

[00:06:07] They shouldn’t be initiated by a notification on your phone.

[00:06:11] They shouldn’t be initiated by your calendar.

[00:06:13] They shouldn’t be initiated by another person walking up to your desk.

[00:06:18] They should be initiated by you.

[00:06:20] The reason for this is because it creates a necessity for you to choose one

[00:06:27] thing at a time to do.

[00:06:29] This means that nothing can interrupt you.

[00:06:32] If you are choosing to do one thing at a time, then you are pulling.

[00:06:36] In other words, you can go and check your email, but only when you choose to

[00:06:41] go and check your email.

[00:06:42] Actionably, this means turning off your push notifications.

[00:06:46] It means maybe putting your phone on do not disturb mode and letting your

[00:06:50] coworkers know when you have office hours, when you are available to talk.

[00:06:58] If your boss or your coworkers don’t understand this, then point them to

[00:07:03] this podcast and I guarantee you that once you’ve given them some data and

[00:07:08] once they’ve listened to some rationalization about why focus is so

[00:07:13] important, not only for you, but also for them, hopefully their perspective will

[00:07:17] change on why interruption and them coming up to your desk and stopping you

[00:07:22] from focusing is so detrimental to your work.

[00:07:27] This also comes with a bit of a higher sense of responsibility because now

[00:07:31] instead of you not being responsible for things being delivered to you, you

[00:07:36] have to go and pick them up.

[00:07:38] That means that you can’t just sit around and not check your email for five

[00:07:43] days in a row and expect to keep your job.

[00:07:46] There’s going to be a little bit more intentional work on your part to be

[00:07:51] able to focus, but the payoff is definitely worth it.

[00:07:56] You may also find yourself deciding to leave some things behind that you

[00:08:00] previously thought were supposedly necessary for you.

[00:08:04] For instance, an email digest of the 100 most important articles in the

[00:08:11] development community over the last week.

[00:08:13] Of course, it makes sense to stay up and regular with emails that come in

[00:08:20] and I hope you would stay regular with this podcast for instance, but if

[00:08:24] this podcast, I’ll be daring and say if this podcast is causing you a lack

[00:08:30] of focus, then put it down.

[00:08:32] It’s not worth it.

[00:08:33] The podcast will be here when you come back and when you have time for it, but

[00:08:37] if you can’t focus, put something to death.

[00:08:41] You have to say no to a thousand things to be able to innovate according

[00:08:45] to once again, the late great Steve Jobs.

[00:08:50] So today we’ve been talking about focus.

[00:08:51] If you have any ideas, any tips for the community, the development

[00:08:56] community in general, but also anybody who might stumble across this

[00:09:00] podcast, please send them in to me.

[00:09:03] You can find my email as well as a Twitter account at developer T and

[00:09:08] then developer T at gmail.com.

[00:09:10] I’m using Gmail until I decide to, uh, to actually buy the Google

[00:09:15] app, so, uh, developer T at gmail.com.

[00:09:18] Send me your ideas, send me ideas for topics if you’d like, or if

[00:09:23] you just absolutely hated this show and tell me why I’d love to make it

[00:09:27] better, uh, and I’d love to make a show that the people who are listening

[00:09:31] actually enjoy and find value.

[00:09:33] And until next time, enjoy your tea.

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