Week 1 Reading Response

As I sit here trying to ignore the barrage of "TF2 Smack Talk E-mails" (I've gotten 7 in the last 11 mins alone), I am attempting to recollect some of the articles, blogs, and documents that I have stumbled through in the past five days. Seeing as it's my first week on the job, I have naturally had to read a plethora of information just to tread water and try to get up to speed with my responsibilities. The document that I will be referring to this week is the infamous "Monster Method," which will henceforth be referred to as "The Method."

Firstly, I enjoyed the section regarding "flow." I found that I could most definitely identify with many of the theories that The Method brought to light. While discipline and clear-tasking are not areas that I particularly struggle with, I do sometimes struggle to find an environment in which I can create/maintain good flow. Here at Sentry, at first I struggled with my environment being somewhat loud and distracting, but I feel that things have settled down in the past couple days. At school, I find myself getting into the zone, or as The Method calls it, flow, late at night after my roommates and most of the other people in my house have gone to sleep. I will be working to improve at dealing with distractions this summer here at Sentry.

Secondly, I liked the guiding principle from The Method that talked about "cross-pollination." I have experienced this already in my first week here, although it has mostly just been me getting pollinated by several expert co-workers, rather than assisting others. Were it not for cross-pollination, I would be lost and even less productive than I currently am.

Lastly, I enjoyed the section entitled "Blocks of Time." I have always felt like little 45-60 minute blocks of time are rather worthless to get anything significant accomplished, and this section confirmed my suspicions. According to The Method, "Studies have shown that it takes a minimum of an hour and half of uninterrupted time to get any kind of meaningful work completed." It suggests planning your day into 1.5 hour blocks and using the time inbetween these blocks to take any breaks. This ensures that flow of work is not impaired.