Photo by Mariano Colombotto

Imagine you are driving at full speed on an empty highway, and then suddenly, you hit an hour-long traffic jam. Your 8-hour trip becomes 9 hours. Frustrating, isn’t it?

Now imagine that getting back to full speed is a slow business. It takes at least 30 minutes, not the 10 seconds you were hoping for. Now your trip is 9 hours and 30 minutes — 90 minutes longer than expected.

The reason for this extra 30 minutes is that any intellectually intense work requires flow. Flow is a mental state when the brain is most productive. After a hitch, getting back into the flow state takes time.

Being in the flow is like driving at full speed on an empty highway. Being interrupted is like hitting a traffic jam.

You are finally driving forward at full speed again, but then you hit two more 15-minute traffic jams, hours apart.

Think you lost another 90 (15+30+15+30) minutes? Unfortunately, it is a lot worse. You’ve just lost the whole day.

Getting into the flow requires a lot of energy. With every distraction, it becomes a lot harder.

Photo by Jens Herrndorff

That is why programmers, and everyone else who makes great stuff, don’t like meetings.