"Uninterrupted time" Best productivity advise. This can beat every method, every app out there.

The irony of having to pause that video 3 times because someone was talking to me.

He's right on the mark about creative professions needing long stretches of uninterrupted time. Something that NEVER happens at the office. I'm a designer and even if I know I have the rest of the afternoon to myself, I can't seem to get work started because I know I'm bound to get interrupted sooner or later!

I just watched this clip from my office....in Africa....we dont just all sit on rocks drinking beer out of dried pumpkins around a camp fire. :-) Great talk terrible stereotyping.

my manager would hate this..i got warning letters for getting caught watching youtube during office hours altho i got a number of recognitions by the dept for getting a lot of tasks n projects done on time n great performance..

Great talk. Totally agree & I think working away from the office works best for those performing creative or mentally intensive tasks that require high level of concentration and uninterruption. I probably spend about 2-3 hours per day actually doing any real work because of the level of distraction but occasionally when I work from home I get about 7-8 hours of actual work done.

I really like the NO TALK THURSDAY AFTERNOON idea :)

Let me try to explain (english is not my first language) I've been work on a website as a writer for over almost 2 years now (I'm 22) and I think the hardest is to feel inspirated when you spend too many time alone. I really like to work with the other writers, I like how we sit to take coffe and chat about our articles and ask help, it's really nice (thing that doesn't happen online, because I don't know, it's not the same). So, yep people, work from home is really confortable but make sure to take time to go out, eat, talk with friends, read, and runaway from family because it will be the same if you don't set your space.

The voice of someone that has never had to manage large scale projects - some relevant points none the less.

He is missing a major point of what work is. Yes, some of work is accomplishing a particular task, but the real WORK is sharing your knowledge with others to make them better at their job and learning from others who might know more than you do. None of that can happen on the porch, or in the kitchen or the plane.

Jason Fried hit the nail right on the head. So much of my work used to be done to and from work with no-one disturbing me. A meeting culture can be very counter-productive. The M&Ms are so frustrating for most employee's. I also like the idea of testing the idea of not talking for a full day.

honestly my company is like what he said, everyone is so quiet and keep focus on their own job, well, most of them, and we only have meeting like several week a time, sometimes when I adjust my mood quickly, it do work well and I can finish a lot of things, but a bit depressed when I've been there for long time but still not getting along familiar with my colleague. Since everyone do their job very fast and on time, and leave on time, I don't want to disturb their time, so basically, reluctantly have a chance to conversation and I've stopped my eager to communicate a lot with people...when in work

As an entrepreneur and an independent thinker i completely buy his presentation, and if my office was a group of people like me or him, it would work perfectly. But not all people like their job and hence not everyone wants to "do" any work or apply themselves to it. They need to be told what to do and follow ups are critical, like the guy who you hired to mow the lawn or fix your car. I feel this talk is only applicable to small startups or just senior management in bigger companies, and for people who are extremely motivated and driven. Alas, that's not the world of normal work places.

Good advice! When I was a manager, I made sure to leave my staff alone but allow them to check up on me when they needed..they really respected me. I also had trust in them. Otherwise when I worked in an office, I noticed that everyone would chat, take bathroom breaks to use their cells, took coffee or cig breaks, did their work more slowly, spent time chatting with other staff just endless methods when the work was stressful..therefore I do agree that people WILL FIND A WAY TO TAKE THE EDGE OFF

i gotta say, i work at UPS, and i love my job. Personally, I think manual labor is a good thing for everyone, because I unload trucks and even when days suck horribly, I always go home and know that I unloaded this truck, meaning boxes that went for 30-55 feet, stacked anywhere from 3 - 10 feet high, repeated 1-3 times in a normal day (i do more than 1 truck per day). I always feel like I actually did something and I earned the money I was paid. It feels good.

This was very impressive. I work at an Engineering/Construction company and the amount of interruptions is incredible! I recently had surgery for a detached retina and was home for 5 weeks and got more work done during that period than the previous 6 months! I will work to incorporate some of these idea's!!

Thanks Jason for the ideas, even as a one person operation I feel I can implement them to improve my workflow and eventual service that I offer. Johnnie Lawson

Dude, this all makes sense now, you were ahead of time! Just brilliant! 👏🏼👏🏼

It's all about balance. If you create a company where everyone is working remotely, talking passively and avoiding meeting together in the name of productivity, you might have some real issues.

somebody, please make my bosses watch this...

You know, when I was an intern, the company where I worked blocked the entire internet for us interns. Yes, we did not have contact with the outside world, only the intranet. We couldn't even Google something.

I was expecting some studies at the end of the video to show results of this work method. Because the thing is, and I agree with you Luivir Rangel, we go to office to meet people and share ideas and get inspired from people when we're talking to each other. Ideas we probably won't get working alone. I worked on different team projects, and yes, I've done quasi the all work in the evening because i was alone at home and then i didn't get disturb by other people. But we had really great ideas talking about this project in team cause we've shared ideas and talked about that. We do meetings to resolve problem, to do better. I believe that the office is also a place to connect people, share and develop new ideas that would never have been found before. Maybe the best method is having some moments alone but also find time to share ideas and discuss about it.

This doesn't apply to everyone, this is writers and graphic designers and that kind of people who work on the porch on at the beach. If you're an engineer and working on a complicated problem, and you're collaborating with others, it helps to be at the office with coworkers! Also, we also have offices in Africa.

"unless you live in Africa"...what does that mean? There are definitely office spaces in Africa

I agree with most of his points. Especially in reference to meetings. In a meeting with 15 to 20 people it is especially difficult to keep the main purpose of the meeting on task. It is very easy to slip down rabbit trails and things are not done. I am all for collaboration and sharing of ideas, but large meetings are not the most productive place . Often times when there are " too many cooks in the kitchen" productivity is radically decreased and frustration is increased.

An overview of 6 of the key insights: • Companies spend a ton of money on offices, while employees indicate they get most work done outside the office. • For creative work,​ you need long periods of uninterrupted time to get work done. In the office this is rarely the case (or only very early/late on the day). • The use of social media for private purposes can be considered as a smoke break for your employees. • The real problems are M&Ms (managers and meetings) which you can only find at the office. • Meetings aren’t work; they are things you are supposed to do later. Moreover, they are very expensive to the organisation. • Two of his suggestions: experiment with quiet time in the afternoon and transition from active forms of communication to more passive ones.

One of the most pertinent points raised by Jason Fried - the topic of uninvited interruptions that thwart your productivity at the office. I personally prefer to work from home (away from all kinds of distractions, including my own family members WHILE I am working...) in a quiet place where I can think, plan, lay out my ideas, re-visit them at will, correct and the whole nine-yards of an intuitive process. At the office, gossip becomes the static that kills my creativity and productivity.

i am an digital artist who worked one year in thecompanies office.. everybody was talking.. it was a nightmare and i had to do high q jobs. i talked to the ceos and suggested to work at home.. now i am really free. nobody s commenting and interrupted me.. i wprked yesterday 18 hours cause it was much pleasure.. not everyday.. one day i can only bring 4 hours my creativity .. then 12 hours.. ideas are coming in the breaks.. in that part where i am not at my home office. i have to go some steps away ofthe work.. now i can meditate an hour before work.. then i can do all i want.. and yes.. i can nearly create everthing. in my office i was mobbed of persons who are so unsatisfied (and here in germany almost everybody is unhappy) with their life and the job etc.... no way i will do that again.. thank you boss ,) btw i have no face book.. no twitter.. just yt.. people and my family i have in REAL life.. really cant waist my time here with...'hello, how are you? what are you doing right now...bla, bla.. yes i drink a coffee now and you? i slap my dog..bla bla' people i give you the best drug ever on earth.. it took many years for finding it.. the drug is called.. doing things you have to do.. than you will have a natural high.. than again enjoy sitting still and meditate ... uuuh wonderfull.. the loving self is there ,)

Relatable even after 10 years👍

You just explained my exact vision of work in all the multinational public and private companies' offices I've worked in (more than 30 different ones ^^) worst of them being the "open offices" It's impossible to concentrate in those giant open spaces ! I'm happy with the part-time CEO assistant job I have today cause there is only the Boss and I... no middle management and no "other administrative person" (usually women) to tell me how to do my job every 10 minutes. I'm a HPE and an artist . I really have a hard time being creative already at home with my boyfriend interrupting me and my "everyday duties for 2" having to be "regular" cause someone else is depending on it too... So had to find a way to not be annoyed like that all the time everywhere ! And like you explained, I love public transports, walking (1 to 2horus per day) and the rare hours of total peace I can get just because it's only then that I can "think" for god sake ! imagine, build, organise, create, ... WORK. I'm really thinking of setting myself as a freelancer (first part-time and if it works well full time) Thanks allot for your presentation ! It's a relief to know notorious minded people like yourself think this way too and point out the "should be" obvious lame thing we're all still doing... Your 3 suggestions are awesome too ! Solutions ! guidelines ! love it !

Wow! This is brilliant! Gonna post it to my Managers! So true! Thank you!

Great talk - but am wondering if the girl at the end is still using her Blackberry?

I'm actually listening to this ted talk at work !! IRONY

Another great video from Ted. Good information, thanks for sharing!

@jaspertine9 I noticed this too, ideally there would be a system in place where people email unless its very urgent, in which case they would im. Of course there is always those people who think everything they want is urgent. People can always find other things to do while they are waiting for a reply though.

wow this was spot on.. esp the meeting part

@MelTurpin I agree. I was just having a discussion on this topic, with my job which is self perpetuating, versus a more strict business that seems repressive. Not everyone is able to motivate themselves, and different tactics won't always work with all people.

I have a creative work and i run around to meet clients at their comfortable place so as i can read them in their environment. I think thats much better so as they can be relaxed and focus on their need and goals. It really help me to be free in my choice of place to work and i most often use a local coffeshop for breakfast wish free my mind for creativity and writing my strategies ;) Thanks Jason

Hey KZfaq algorithm, please show this video in my manager's feed

I completely agree. At school, we're given so much homework. Whenever a teacher gives time to doing something in class, I can't work as effectively as I would at home. The school day could be radically shortened and I would probably be doing better, and I would have more time for work, extra curricular activities, and volunteer work, etc.

I am reading his book REWORK it’s a very common sense kind of book thing. It is Sunday November 10th 2019 7:43 am in Melrose Massachussets and what he says is as relevant as ever. Great book BOSS great book. So true, so true

12 anos depois estou aqui, reassistindo esse vídeo pela enésima vez.

THank you : ), amazing content, enjoyable presentation

This talk is so relevant now in 2022. The lame excuse that companies use to get employees back to office is collaboration. But collaboration is effective when employees are allowed to collaborate remotely when they are in places of less distraction. Daily irrelevant meetings in an office takes away the creativity and productivity from the team.

Yep. This is why I work outside on my deck.. It's also why I quit my job to live my passion. Awesome video.

Thank you for this talk!

I've had a few good managers before. They would ask the expected questions but would also ask, "do you need anything? what can I do to help you work better? are there any obstacles?" Asking those questions and questions like them and then *actually doing those things* to solve those issues made a huge difference. It wasn't always help though bc most managers could / would only do one or two things. Had they done what I needed it would have helped everyone!

This guy is right on the ball. I agree with everything that was mentioned.

I work from home for the past three months and believe me I have never dome so much in past two years.TRY IT YOURSELF - it is as simple as that.

so true, in fact including calming music at workplace will help in great ways, have your employees listen to music while working, it does wonders, THUMBS up ;)

Great topic and would really like to see his ideas start taking hold in the work place

So true!!! (I have resorted to wearing workshop ear muffs at my desk to fend off office distractions)

The Blackberry ad at the end really provided some extra comic relief. The keypad is amazing!

"These bosses think that KZfaq is distracting when actually it's these other things." Yeah, because I'm totally watching this at home on my own time and totally not at work... haha...

The voice of someone that has never had to manage large scale projects - some relevant points none the less - 4 hours peace - good call.

Totally agree with your talk!. We'd all be much more productive if we could work by objectives and have total freedom about how, when, and where to work. Use the office for team meetings, objective tasks, conclusiones, etc.. but not for work productive. Gonna keep this video.

This makes all the sense in the world. Love it!!!!

Yes, we all get constantly distracted and pulled away from our main tasks to do so many other little things, but at the end of the day, all of those little task add up to a lot of work that was done! So you didn't get that project finished, but you did help a coworker fix the printer and went that extra mile for a customer... still all good things!

Amazing!! thank you!

I gave this a try. I noticed my workers started to wonder around and had frequent hallway social talk.

I'm starting to despise the 'mainstream' workplace and media - this is a good rejoinder

Jason's clarification around how to practice mindful leadership is a welcome addition to the field. Here'e a brief reading that we've done from his book: kzfaq.info/get/bejne/qK6aqaWZvdHSlWw.html

Really insightful talk!

i love this talk, it's awesome!

(cont) Sure I read lots of USEnet (before the web), but in 4 years I called the circuit providers just ONCE for a dispatch that wasn't actually their problem. Once. Because I had the time to actually examine and troubleshoot problems without interruption. Staff meetings were 1 hr, once a month. That's it. Glorious.

Well said and very true!

i agree about the long stretches of uninterrupted time. at school my English teacher asks me to write an essay. i try to think of a really good idea for one but by the time i have it the class is most of the way over, so i have to write a meaningless and un-unique esaay.

truely marvelous..thank you :)

@Precaseptica You're right - I took the time to watch the rest. I feel like his ideas on managers is a bit narrow minded, and they still don't apply to my workplace, but I can see how they might be effective in some environments.

I have been working at home for 8 years, and I must say that I could not agree more. I understand the need for meetings with a large number of folks (Program Managers really do need this), but when people attend such calls from home over the net/phone, it wastes far less time.

love this talk

I think I made a mistake when I encouraged my manager to watch this since he is notorious for being long winded, but I was so impressed by this video that I wanted to let everyone at work know about it.

My entire work life.. "period"! This man deserves a great sum of money to promote these ideas!!!!

Eleven years and still current!

MMmmmm... I don't like the conclusions he pitched. For a while, my office didn't have meetings and people were in disarray and so many things fell through the cracks. The thing he's really trying to tackle is "How do you communicate between your employees without disrupting workflow." I don't think he came to a professional conclusion in this video.

absolutely brilliant...

I used to be a supervisor in a small university (I was the head of General Studies) and the president was always on my case about not holding meetings with my faculty. I always told him they had better things to do than listen to me elucidate on random crap irrelevant to their work as faculty, that they knew what to do, and that everything would be fine. My department was the most productive. The nursing department, on the other hand, had weekly meetings and hourly complaints. Jason is correct.

4. You have to know what is the best time for you to get focused. For some people it is in the morning. Some people work better in the afternoon (such as myself). Then split your day in two. During the time it is harder to you to get focused, do things which take short periods to be accomplished: answer e-mails, search for documentation to support your work, organize your stuff. You will do several small tasks that will help you not bothering you while working.

From experience, I agree with nearly everything Jason Fried has said, and what I have read about Csikszentmihalyi's theory of flow lends weight to Fried's analogy of phases of sleep and phases of work. But has their been any serious research done into the differences and similarities of distractions at home vs. distractions at work?

straight to the point!!

So true. They make life so difficult for the introverts who just want to get on and work - quietly!

I think its true that some people work best on their own, but personally, i work best in a team. When you are all working on a project together, get to discuss, shoot ideas back and forth, ask for help, and see a project come together in real time its a great feeling. I also NEED feedback on my work, praise and criticism, it motivates me. Working in a vacuum is horrible. We are social creatures.

@MelTurpin I had a office job at a company and honestly I was noticing upward three hours a day of the work day being wasted on talk about basketball(lakers). Also their was a huge amount of sales which is based on performance. In sales you cannot get away slacking off like that. Other practices still have a deadline and you can always fire people for not fulfilling them.

very right, esp the part on managers :)

@freesk8 I agree with you. He has a point - I need many hours of peace to work well however my research is about collaboration. That doesn't really happen in the work place environment though either. The best collaborative work happens in the bar, out walking, in a cafe. More comfortable relaxed environments. Look at what Pixar have done. This is also linked to intrinsic motivation, critical for people to achieve things.

Great talk!

Wow. I really resonate with this video!

Experience has shown to me that in the period upto Christmas with an expectation that little work is expected to be done in the relaxed atmosphere, the teams blew away the work targets. This suggests that far from whipping up staff to work, relaxation away can be truely more productive.

Sometimes meetings remind me of school....dumbed down to the extreme. It just brought flashbacks to me of being in school and thinking "I GET IT ALREADY how much longer do I have to sit here?" I always dreaded meetings. Now I work alone and seem to get a lot of work done, problems are solved and many avoided-because I listen to myself.....bosses never did....

Work moments / day shredded to bits...

Great talk! I wish I could send this to my boss without getting fired...

I've always thought that school should be structured like this, 8 hrs/day: Monday: Math Tuesday: Science Wednesday: English Thursday: History Friday: Elective classes (PE, Health, Photography, etc.) I believe that a student could learn 8x as much with this model, because you are getting 8x as many hours per day, as opposed to the time being cut up. Traditional model: 5 hours per subject per week. My model: 8 hours per subject per week. A shorter and more fulfilling school year. Who's with me?

Outstanding talk.

My work is between the office and the flight line where I manage many mechanics. This is obviously geared towards office workers and for the most part he is right but when it is urgent that I need to get something done, I just close my office door and do what I have to do...

I love the information thank you

I agree what he said about no disruption. Disruption makes people need to go back to the start phase again. Also using some internet communication tools can be useful because you can choose when you want to communicate. However, meetings are important too. Meetings force people to come together and discuss a solution or idea and follow up after then. Also it's still important to review and appreciate what do your employees have done during an open phase. Can't deny that there are some old fanshioned folks don't want to accept change and keep sticking in old and inefficient communicate ways and keep complaining about young folks don't communicate face to face. Sometimes when they communicate with their "mouths" , they didn't actually communicate, they just hide those problems and pretend they did the "communications". We all can find a balance with that, as long as we are willing to listen other's perspective and be flexible. I am a fan of using internet tools like email or message to communicate. Because if it's me, I don't want to be interrupteed if it's not neccessary. Also with text I can have time to organize and think about my thought or try to using a more polite way to pursuade or communicate with people. I also would call people on the phone or talk to people face to face if things were urgent or complicated that need to be explained so I can understand or others can understand. And I wouldn't deny that vocal communication have some so-call "Warm and gentle" style. Last but no the least, after a stage of work, it's still important to have meetings then all of the workers can review what has been left and what are the mistakes we have made and contribute the solution or idea that you came up before the meeting and can be used next time or after then.

i listen to them while I work ;)

Best job I ever had, 4pm to 12:30am, network operations. World-wide, couple hundred nodes, and no budget to hire a replacement for the guy who was supposed to be working with me. I had it completely to myself for at least 6 hours every night, unless someone was working late on a special project. The first hour with all the 9-5ers was great for getting caught up, asking questions, getting special assignments from my manager, etc. Then they LEFT ME ALONE to solve problems, if any.

Brilliant analysis. Most of our time is spent talking about work. The M and M's are drags on productivity.

Great points.