Teams and Distractions?

Hi Teams Community!

 

I wanted to share a blog I recently wrote for the Humans of IT MTC blog around my personal experience living with ADD and some of the ways I have managed my work & life.

 

Teams can be really overwhelming for people - especially if you are new to this new way working.  For me, it was almost like going from office with a door at the end of a hallway to sitting in the middle of an enormous open office environment.  The different work style was one thing but what was really difficult for me was the 'noise' - there was ALWAYS something that looked important and I could get easily off track if I didn't have a plan.  At the end of the day I read some great stuff but wasn't sure if I completed much 'work'.

 

Here's a couple of tips incase you might feel the same.

1. Use your notifications or don't - but modify them to work how you work.  For me, that means NO pop-up notifications.  I can't deal with bright shiny objects and notifications get me too far off track.  I make sure to check my activity feed (which is where I want my notifications to display) first thing in the morning, between each meeting, and at the end of the day.  For me, I treat my activity feed and chats like un-read emails.

2. Filter your activity feed by @ mentions. Though I like to see who 'likes' my messages and what messages have been tagged with channels I follow or teams I belong in, the most important thing to me is when someone tags me in a message or in a post.  When I'm tagged, it's like I'm on the 'to' line of an email.  When I'm not tagged or part of a channel message, I assume there is no immediate action for me and it's an FYI.  Though I do get to those messages, I prioritize the messages that mention me directly.

3. Mark messages un-read if I haven't completed the requested action or flag it if I want to remind myself I have an action.  I don't have a great system as to what gets what - but both are ways I track things I have to do.  Do what works for you.  I just know for me, if I read something and don't mark it, it's gone into a black hole until I get that "ping" IM from someone 🙂  

 

Hope that helps some of you.  Check out the blog for a few trips for other MS products and let us know what tips you might have to help from getting distracted at work.