Why you can’t work at work

Last Friday I got sucked into watching some of the hilarious promotional videos that 37Signals had done for their recently released book, Rework. And because YouTube is a magnetic vortex I got sucked into watching several other insightful videos and interviews with 37Signals’ Jason Fried.

Then as the dawn of a new work-week arose, Fried was back in the spotlight with a video I’d somehow missed. In this clip from a longer interview Fried explores the impact of distractions in the workplace.

If people want to get things done, they’ve got to get rid of interruptions. And so I think that’s something we’re focused on, is trying to remove every possible interruption from people’s day. So they have longer and longer periods of uninterrupted time to actually get work done.

And managers are the biggest problem because their whole world is built around interruption. That’s what they do. Management means interrupting. Hey, what’s going on? How’s this going? Let me call a meeting because that’s what I do all day, I call meetings.

Fried is beginning to become a sought after guru on his brand of workplace productivity and efficiency through minimalism. I could see him becoming the David Allen of the next generation of business people and entrepreneurs. Especially if you subscribe to Wired’s plan for the next industrial revolution.

[via clusterflock]

Update: 37Signals has posted the illustrations from their book Rework. I foresee these being sold in poster form in the near future.