Jason Fried – Why work doesn’t happen at work

Jason Fried argues that the office isn’t actually a good place to get work done. In his Ted Talk (2010), he describes how our work day is turned into ‘work moments’ the second we walk through the office door. We go through the motions of work yet rarely accomplish any projects that are bigger or more meaningful. He compares the work day to the five stages of the sleep cycle.

To get to the bigger, deeper stages of sleep you have to go through the first stages; the same goes for work. To get to the bigger, more meaningful projects, you have to get through the early stages first. If you’re constantly interrupted during those early stages, you have to start again. Hence, we go through the motions of work but don’t always seem to actually get work done.

It’s a great presentation with some really interesting points on our perceptions of efficient time management. What do you think? Where do you go when you need to get something done? Are Facebook and Twitter the real culprits of distracting employees from work?

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