You are not slow. You don't have any deep work blocks.

Do you know the situation? You're working on a TYPO3 upgrade, sorting out the dependencies in Composer and have an overview of three extensions in your head at the same time. Then Slack flashes up. A colleague asks if you can "take a quick look". You take a look. It's only 30 seconds. You go back to the code. And then: Where was I just?

This feeling is probably familiar to anyone who writes code. You're not slow. You're just constantly being pulled out. And that costs you more time than you think.

What deep work actually means

The term comes from Cal Newport, computer science professor at Georgetown University, from his book "Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World" (no affiliate link). Deep work describes the ability to concentrate on a cognitively demanding task without distraction. The opposite of this is Shallow Work: answering emails, checking Slack messages, sitting through meetings. All things that feel like work, but rarely result in real progress.

For developers, deep work is not a nice-to-have. It's the basic prerequisite for creating anything meaningful at all. Whether you're upgrading TYPO3, developing an extension or debugging a complex TypoScript setup, you need coherent blocks of time where no one interrupts you.

The hidden costs of an interruption

"It's only 30 seconds." That's true. For the interruption itself. But what happens afterwards takes much longer.

A study by Gloria Mark, Daniela Gudith and Ulrich Klocke (published in 2008 in the Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems) examined what interruptions do to us. The result: interrupted people work faster to make up for lost time, but they pay for it with significantly more stress, frustration and time pressure. The quality of the work remains the same - but the price is high.

There is also something that I know from my own everyday life: After an interruption, you rarely go straight back to the original task. You quickly check an email, reply to another message, take a quick look at another ticket. And then you sit there and ask yourself: What did I actually just do? What was it about again? Which file did I have open?

If this happens to you three or four times a day, you're not just losing time. You're working under increased pressure all day without realizing it. Not because you're slow. It's because you've never been able to work long enough in one go.

Why developers are particularly affected

Not every job suffers equally from interruptions. If you're processing emails or checking invoices, you can carry on relatively quickly after a disruption. But software development works differently.

When you write code, you build a mental model in your head. You keep dependencies, data flows, variables and side effects in your working memory at the same time. This takes time to build up. And it breaks down immediately when someone comes in with "Have you got a minute?"

The same applies to video production, course design or writing documentation. Everything that requires coherent thinking needs coherent time.

The issue of constant availability

I see it all the time: people who reply to every email within ten minutes. Every time. No matter when you write to them.

Sure, sometimes you don't have anything urgent on your plate at the moment. That happens. But if that's the normal state of affairs, then there's an email notification running in the background that pops up with every incoming message. And every time it does "Bing", your concentration is gone.

As a developer, this is the ultimate productivity killer. You don't slow down because of difficult tasks. You become slow because you are constantly ready to react to everything immediately.

How I solved this for myself

I'm half self-employed with my own TYPO3 business and half employed in an agency. In both worlds, I need concentrated blocks of time. But the framework conditions are different.

In my own business, I have full control. If I'm producing videos or working on a course on a particular day, I block the day in my calendar. Nobody can book an appointment via Calendly, which I use to book appointments. There's simply no free slot. Telephone? I use a call center for that. They take calls and forward them to me by e-mail. I call back when I have time. So people can't just call me and tear me away from my concentration.

For big projects, I sometimes block off whole weeks. For my TYPO3 complete course, which I am currently working on, I have reserved 14 days in a row in which nothing else takes place. No appointments, no calls, just course production.

It's a different storyat the agency. Here I can be reached via Slack and phone. That's part of it. But if I'm working on something that requires a lot of concentration, I set Slack to "Do not disturb" and mute the phone. My colleagues know that they have to ask beforehand whether I'm available. The boss knows and respects that too. No drama, just clear communication.

What you can do as an employee

"Yes, but I'm an employee. I can't set up a call center." That's right. And you don't have to. But you can still fight for your focus time.

Communicate clearly what you need. If you need to focus on a project, say so. Set your status in Slack to "Do not disturb". Block two hours in your calendar. And then follow through.

Your employer will benefit. You are a developer. You write the code. You bring in the revenue. An employer who does not allow their developers protected blocks of time for concentrated work is simply damaging their business. That's not an exaggeration, it's a fact.

Find out where you can best concentrate on your work. For me, working from home is the perfect solution. Door closed, quiet, full concentration. I've also spent half a day working from a café with a view of Lake Constance simply because I wanted to. And it worked. As long as you have the internet, you can work from anywhere in our industry without becoming less productive.

But I also know people who can't work productively at home at all and need contact with colleagues. That's completely fine. Not everyone works the same way. Find out where you work best and make sure you get your deep work blocks there.

What I can't understand, though: Agencies that impose arbitrary restrictions on their developers. "A maximum of two days a week from home" or a complete obligation to work from home. In an industry where it makes zero difference whether someone works from their desk at home, from the office or from a café on Lake Constance. If you find yourself in such a situation: Address it. Explain why concentrated work works better for you somewhere else. And if your employer still insists on your presence instead of looking at results, then at least you know where you stand.

Be firm. It sounds uncomfortable, but it's necessary. Even against superiors who see things differently. You know best how to work most productively. Defend that.

As long as nobody dies, it's not an emergency

Many developers set Slack to "Do not disturb" and then have a guilty conscience. What if I miss something important? What if the team needs me?

I have a slightly different perspective on this because I used to work as a nurse for many years. There were real emergencies. People who needed help immediately because otherwise something bad would happen.

Since then, I've defined "urgent" a little differently: as long as nobody dies if I don't do something immediately, it's not an emergency. It can wait 30 minutes. Or an hour.

Of course, there are exceptions. If you manage an online store that generates five-figure sales per hour, then an outage is indeed time-critical. But for the vast majority of website projects, it doesn't matter whether you respond to a request immediately or in an hour. Honestly.

The guilty conscience disappears as soon as you understand: you're not doing it to be lazy. You're doing it to work better. Everyone benefits from this.

Know your rhythm

I'm an early riser. I'm most productive in the morning and my energy levels drop in the afternoon. It's always been like that. Even in my time as a nurse, the late shifts were tougher than the early shifts.

That's why I put the tasks that require my full concentration in the morning. I briefly sift through emails and messages in the morning, prioritize them and then start on the most important task. In the afternoon, I do the things that need less focus.

This is not a secret recipe. It's simply self-awareness. Everyone has a time of day when concentration is at its highest. Find yours and protect it.

By the way: "Not in the mood, but important" is also part of this. Not every task is fun. If it has to be done anyway, then do it at your best time. Tasks that aren't urgent and you don't feel like doing? They can wait a day.

No deep work without breaks

Every five to six weeks, I try to keep a day free on which I have no appointments and don't plan anything. I call it a self-care day. I decide spontaneously what to do on that day. Maybe a bike ride. Maybe some work if I feel like it. Maybe just nothing.

That sounds like a luxury. But it's not. If you're constantly under pressure and never really switch off, the quality of your work will suffer in the long term. A day without an agenda is not a lost day. It's an investment in the days that follow.

What you can do now

You don't have to change everything tomorrow. A first step is enough:

Find out when you work best. In the morning? In the afternoon? In the evening? Then block off exactly this time. At least two hours at a time, without meetings, without Slack, without emails.

Test it out for a week. See what happens. The world won't end because you weren't available for two hours. But you'll realize how much you can get done in that time if you're not pulled out every ten minutes.

And then defend this time. Against colleagues, against customers, against yourself (because the temptation to look at Slack "just for a minute" is your biggest enemy). You are the one who writes the code. You bring in the revenue. So make sure you can do that too.