Contrary I think to most of the rest of the audience here, my most productive came when I was directly (in the same room) working with people on a specific project.
I find being surrounded by people working on different elements to bring something together much more motivating and productive than banishing all outside disturbances. This might be because marketing is less in need of "the zone" than programming, but frankly, having that direct accountability of working with other people on pulling a campaign together really gets me focused and firing at 100%.
When I'm doing that, I don't seem to get distracted by notifications, bloated software, my phone, Facebook, HN etc...
My most productive period where I was managing a campaign launch, but working with my peers. It skews a bit if you're either managing from atop or below, because when you're at the same level there's camaraderie that makes it just click (great colleagues being a requisite, of course).
[This isn't an extrovert/introvert point either, I'm the latter, and whilst this way of working is draining from that perspective, it seems to be highly productive for me.]
I find being surrounded by people working on different elements to bring something together much more motivating and productive than banishing all outside disturbances. This might be because marketing is less in need of "the zone" than programming, but frankly, having that direct accountability of working with other people on pulling a campaign together really gets me focused and firing at 100%.
When I'm doing that, I don't seem to get distracted by notifications, bloated software, my phone, Facebook, HN etc...
My most productive period where I was managing a campaign launch, but working with my peers. It skews a bit if you're either managing from atop or below, because when you're at the same level there's camaraderie that makes it just click (great colleagues being a requisite, of course).
[This isn't an extrovert/introvert point either, I'm the latter, and whilst this way of working is draining from that perspective, it seems to be highly productive for me.]