Most of us go through a typical workday doing a lot of things but not really achieving anything at the end of the day. Each day is roughly a repeat of the last – get to work, turn on computer, draft/reply/forward emails, wait for new emails, lunch, marketing meeting, more emails, and so on.
If someone asked you what you actually achieved, you would struggle to answer. Yet at the same time the only real answer to “How was your day?” would be “Busy”.
Busy with what though? We are addicted to a feeling and perception of busy-ness, while achieving nothing more than acting as a glorified mail centre. If you want your employees to do things with real value for your business, you need to give them time to focus.
Cal Newport, in his book ‘Deep Work’, notes, “In the absence of clear indicators of what it means to be productive and valuable in their jobs, many knowledge workers turn back towards an industrial indicator of productivity: doing lots of stuff in a visible manner.”
What we actually need people to do is to have time to focus on the things that matter. Collaborate intentionally and do all of this without distraction. This can only happen in the right environment but most offices and in the case of recent lockdowns, most homes are not set up for it. Open plan spaces, open kitchens, open door polices and open lives are plenty but there’s nowhere to get away from it all and focus.
In response to this, Bureau has developed urban rooms for homes and offices. Give people somewhere to do the stuff that you have paid them to do properly, or in the case of self-employed people who anyway work from home, a space that would allow them to focus and complete their work.Most of us go through a typical workday doing a lot of things but not really achieving anything at the end of the day. Each day is roughly a repeat of the last – get to work, turn on computer, draft/reply/forward emails, wait for new emails, lunch, marketing meeting, more emails, and so on.
If someone asked you what you actually achieved, you would struggle to answer. Yet at the same time the only real answer to “How was your day?” would be “Busy”.
Busy with what though? We are addicted to a feeling and perception of busy-ness, while achieving nothing more than acting as a glorified mail centre. If you want your employees to do things with real value for your business, you need to give them time to focus.
Cal Newport, in his book ‘Deep Work’, notes, “In the absence of clear indicators of what it means to be productive and valuable in their jobs, many knowledge workers turn back towards an industrial indicator of productivity: doing lots of stuff in a visible manner.”
What we actually need people to do is to have time to focus on the things that matter. Collaborate intentionally and do all of this without distraction. This can only happen in the right environment but most offices and in the case of recent lockdowns, most homes are not set up for it. Open plan spaces, open kitchens, open door polices and open lives are plenty but there’s nowhere to get away from it all and focus.
In response to this, Bureau has developed urban rooms for homes and offices. Give people somewhere to do the stuff that you have paid them to do properly, or in the case of self-employed people who anyway work from home, a space that would allow them to focus and complete their work.
