Same here. As described in the schedule I posted elsewhere in this thread, I tend to come to office at 12:00 - 13:00[0]. And I like it quite much. Most of the cow-orkers in my room work ~09:00 - ~17:00, so there's 4-5 hours of overlap in the afternoon, followed by 3 hours of peace when I can focus and get something done. There are days when I do actually manage to come as early as 08:00, and those days I really miss being alone in the room.
--
[0] - Had long battles about that with my boss. He gave up after a year, realizing that there's no way to make me come before 10:00 regularly (my sleeping patterns are weird), but I am there when it matters and get the job done.
Yeah that "reloading " process is hard for me as well, which is why I wear headphones. But some people don't respect headphones! They still interrupt with trivial bs, even after you've given them every possible nonverbal clue that you're trying to get shit done!
I actually ditched shitty Bluetooth headphones and bought myself a HyperX Butt set for work just because of noisy cow-orkers. Works wonders for ambient noise and I enjoy the quality of whatever I am listening to, but as you said, some people still don't get the clue.
Yeah, it doesn't matter how good your headphones are when some asshole sneaks up behind you and taps you on the shoulder to ask you some inane question that he could have sent in an email.
Sometimes I wonder if it's assholeness or just complete inability to read nonverbal cues.
> complete inability to read nonverbal cues
Isn't that the default in software departments/companies? However, usually that is considered an "asshole" by the general population, despite actually being a good reason for not reacting to nonverbal communication.
I think it's assholes, for lack of a better term. Instead of respecting your privacy and sending you an email to avoid interrupting you, they think that whatever concern they have is more important and worth interrupting you.
When the office slows down and things get quieter is when I find myself finally able to get completely focused in on things that require all of my attention.
I enjoy meetings, business talk, planning and miscellaneous conversations with coworkers more than (I think) most software developers, but to get any sizable software project done I do best with chunks of a few hours at a time to get into a focused state, get all of the moving parts loaded into my head, then actually write the code/fix the bug etc.
My solution to this–in an office that I share with people who talk on the phone–is to show up in the late morning after they've made their morning calls, and leave in the evening a few hours after they leave. This way we overlap in the afternoon, but I get some time with a quiet office where I can really think.
Just while writing this comment several conversations happened around me that drew my attention away from what I was writing. When I focused my attention back to the comment, I had to skim what I'd just written to 'reload' my thoughts. At least for me, this 'reloading' process takes a long time when it comes to writing software, despite various tricks I've come up with over the years to help speed it up.