OT: productivity and long computing delays

[tobiah]

> about RSI).  My workday is getting chopped up in a manner sort of like
> memory fragmentation in a program, where you end up with a lot of
> disjoint free regions that are individually too small to use.

One way to look at this, is that the work environment is
always fragmented.  Emails, phone calls, co-workers, meals,
meetings...  For many of us, large uninterrupted blocks of coding
time are rare.  In your case, you have blocks of time that
you feel are too small to be used toward another project.  I know
the feeling well.  I'll sit for two minutes staring at the screen
waiting for a download, or a compile, when I know darned well I
could use that time for something else.

How about a task 'stack'.  Make a (electronic) list of all projects
according to priority, with space for a 'register snapshot' next to
each entry.  When a delay shows up in the current project, write a
note describing what you were doing when the task was interrupted,
and go to the highest priority task available in the list.  Read the
note next to the task name, and you are off on the next task, if only
for a half hour, or in your case one or two  hours.  When the higher
priority task is available again, update the current task context note
to reflect the state after your work, and jump to the old task, checking 
it's context to refresh your state of mind.

Tobiah

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