Where you work makes a huge difference in productivity.  This I believe.

Distractions prevent work.  It’s simple flight-or-fight response.  If someone walks by you, or you hear a noise, at some level, you have to respond; there is always the chance you will eaten by a grue.  It’s human nature.  It has served us well thus far in history, but in the information age it’s not the best adaptation.

Evolution has also, however, provided a counter to our fickle fight-or-flight nature: it’s called change blindness¹.

The concept is simple: when your attention is intently focused on one thing, you fail to notice other things around you.

With these concepts in mind, it follows that there are two ways to avoid distractions:

Get rid of the distractions

or

Focus your attention

In an office, what is the best way to get rid of distractions?  Give everyone a private office.  It’s the Joel Spolsky model.  By walling everyone off, you’ve now created huge inertia for one person to bother another.  Distractions drop dramatically.

But most of us live in the real world.  Bosses are cheap, offices cost money, and no matter how many times they are told they can make x times the amount of money if they gave everyone private offices because everyone would be more productive, well, I already said they’re cheap (Joel excepted).  This means most of us work in wide open areas sitting next to five other people, of which two are carrying on a conversation, one types too loud, another has their headphones turned up too loud, and yet another is chewing gum while slurping coffee too loud, all while you can hear the boss reprimanding your coworker over the cube wall, too loudly (and uncomfortably, but you can’t stop trying to listen).

The distractions can’t be gotten rid of, but option two still offers hope: focus your attention.  How do you accomplish that?  Paired programming.  When working with another person, the second person focuses your attention for you.  As your mind starts to wander, you’ll be pulled back to the task by the other person.  Once it’s their turn to be tempted by distraction, you’ll return the favor.  With an open office, it’s your only hope of maintaining focus throughout the day.

If you aren’t lucky enough to have a private office, or to pair program, then your productivity is screwed.  This I believe.

1. I recently discovered this concept from a Wired article by Jonah Lehrer on Teller and magic. [↩]