Years ago Jason Fried, a software entrepreneur and co-founder of Chicago-based 37signals gave a Ted Talk that stunned not only the audience but organizations worldwide. Fried stated that the office – the space organizations sink thousands if not millions of dollars into building and developing for their employees – is the worst place to get work done.

Why isn’t the office a good place to work?

Fried says that he has spent ten years asking the question, “Where do you go if you really want to get work done?” and the answer typically falls into one of three categories:

• At home,
• During a commute,
• At specific times (early in the morning, late at night, on the weekend).

The connection: all three categories allow people to have a large quantity of uninterrupted time, so they can drill down and focus on the task at hand.

The next time you’re in the office, keep track of how many distractions pop up and take you away from your job. There may be co-workers stopping by your desk for a quick chat, a manager asking you a question about a project or your request for vacation time, or there may be yet another meeting scheduled for 10:00 am to discuss an upcoming software update.

How to create an interruption-free workspace?

The Ted Talk ends with three suggestions for how managers can create a productive workplace, like “no talk Thursdays” (one afternoon per month people cannot talk to one another), moving away from face-to-face communications (allows workers to schedule their work time better) and cancelling meetings. Depending on the culture of your workplace, you can build in more interruption-free intervals by:

• Encourage employees to schedule “focus times” on their calendar. Every level of employee should respect and adhere to these times.
• Ask employees to use visual cues. Headphones, signage, or changing your status on an instant messaging service will tell employees that chats with you are off-limits during that period.
• Signing off. Have a hard time focusing, with email and IM notifications popping up on your screen? Give employees permission to sign off and be unavailable. If you absolutely need a person’s attention, you know where to find them.

Hart Partners makes business productivity our goal.

From taking on tasks so that you can focus on your business, to finding ways to optimize your resources and hard-earned capital, Hart Partners works one-on-one with our clients to ensure their success in today’s competitive marketplace. Get started with Hart Partners today by arranging for your free consultation.