A bunch of the folks I am working with now have started to use the Pomodoro Technique. This is really cool and a great way to boost productivity.
One of the challenges is people interrupting because they don’t know someone’s in a Pomodoro. So, one compensation (not a solution, just a mitigating technique) is to use … Desk Flags.
- Flag up = “I’m concentrating – do not disturb.”
- Flag down = “It’s cool to talk to me.”
Here you can see two people working, the closer person has a flag up.
The flags were ordered from DeskFlags.com and they sell this cool 360 degree “click-it” (red and white object in the photos below) that allows one to easily swivel the flags around.
This is how they are mounted.
As I mentioned before, this is a compensation for when people are working solo. An even better compensation is pairing, but that another story…