<?php>Hello Worl...Ooo Shiny!

Editor's Notes

1. Don't forget to arrange a distraction or two...
2. Time Management! Distractions are costly to productivity and efficiency. Unless you are The Doctor with a TARDIS...
3. Or, maybe Hermione Granger with her Time Turner... I'm going to assume that none of you are either and you'd like help with Time Management (avoiding distractions) to stay at peak productivity.
4. So, with this talk, I hope to help you answer these questions.
5. We're most productive when we're “in the zone”. But, it takes ramp up time to get there. Let's say you get interrupted early in your ramp up time. You get knocked back out of the ramp and have to start it over. (Red) Light Blue and Yellow start at the same time, about mid way through ramp up. Yellow is a short and lt blue is long. Darker Blue represents an interruption after you've already hit the zone. It's almost impossible to get back into the zone.
6. Pause to get distraction thoughts from audience. This slide is just for ideas and (though should not be) can be just read verbatim, with anecdotes. This is a good time to get a phone call … YouTubed to the weird zone...
7. Don't answer your phone. Block out downtime. Fix meetings schedules. Make meetings shorter. Overlap your schedule. Work from home/co-work environment. We'll talk a little more on IS later, but for now, co-worker/boss pep talks; a mentor (HUGE shout out to mine, Elizabeth Narramore, and my unofficial methor, Jeremey Kendall;) and, of course, lean on your fellow community members. I hate it when “The MAN” blocks sites, we're all adults, but if FOMO is getting the best of you. Edit /etc/hosts! Close your tabs!
8. Project/Task switching. What about those times when you just can't get in the zone and you're stuck w/ a mental block? Well, that's when you allow all those other distractions to have their turns.
9. This was the best thing I found for me when I worked in a cube farm. (describe Battelle's env. Describe the Zone cube.) Etc..lead up to next slide remote working...
10. Working in an office does have the benefit of peer pressure to help keep you focused, and I've noticed that I am much more likely to waste more time on FOMO working from home than I used to at the office. Sure, the office had many more external distractions than working at home, but I became my own biggest distraction. SO, how did I fix it? Co-working spots and keeping a separate laptop for ONLY work stuff. I've noticed that I am generally more productive in 6 hrs at my co-working spot (a friend's house) than I am in 16 hrs actually at home. (unless I work at night after everyone is in bed. Then it's about the same.)
11. Now that you've learned something about how to avoid distractions, and how to mitigate those few unavoidable distractions, please remember to try to avoid being a distraction yourself. For those of working remotely, if your co-workers haven't seen this talk, and don't know to DnD their phones...don't call them, just in case they have their headphones on.
12. Hopefully that covers enough to get you thinking about how you can take these concepts apply them to your own work environment..
13. This is a good time for questions and discussion, before we get into Impostor Syndrome.
14. This is impostor syndrome.  Wikipedia says “[it] is a psychological phenomenon in which people are unable to internalize their accomplishments.” Which is another way of saying, “I can’t believe someone is actually paying me to do this stuff. I don’t know what the fuck I’m doing!” Wikipedia goes on to add “Despite external evidence of their competence, those with the syndrome remain convinced that they are frauds and do not deserve the success they have achieved. Proof of success is dismissed as luck, timing, or as a result of deceiving others into thinking they are more intelligent and competent than they believe themselves to be.”
15. I have been developing in PHP for 15 years. I earned my Zend Certified Engineer for PHP 5.3. This is no small accomplishment. It wasn’t just handed to me like candy. But I brush it off as easy. I say that I’m just really good at taking tests. I say that anyone could have gotten it, just from common sense. I say it must have been a fluke. My brain won’t let me admit that I *EARNED* that certification. And me dismissing it in all those ways really does a disservice not just to myself, but to everyone else who has earned it by working their butts off, and/or studying for it. But it also can be a real slap in the face to those who have not passed the exam. So, to everyone on both sides of the ZCE coin, I’m sorry. I did work for my certification. I did earn it. I do deserve it. If you have yours, you deserve it too. If you don’t have it yet; study, learn about areas of PHP outside your standard comfort zone; you can earn it too. Also, Daniel Cousineau brought up a few good points on Twitter: I’m no master conman, so if I were really the fraud this disease tells me I am, I would have been found out by now. The community here in PHP aren’t dummies. We all call each other on mistakes… don’t you think they’d call you out if you were a total fraud?
16. We are all experts at something. Don’t let your Imposter Syndrome lie to you.
17. I'll post these slides on slideshare probably tomorrow and post the link to the meetup up page, and on the Twitterz, so to follow me...*advance*
18. So, this is me if you need to or want to reach out to me. So, questions? Discussions? Drinks?