Jason Fried, David Heinemeier Hansson<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It\u2019s crazy at work<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n But the thing is, there\u2019s not more work to be done all of a sudden. The problem is that there\u2019s hardly any uninterrupted, dedicated time to do it. People are working more but getting less done. It doesn\u2019t add up – until you account for the majority of time being wasted on things that don\u2019t matter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Out of the 60, 70, 80 hours a week many people are expected to pour into work, how many of those hours are really spent on the work itself? And how many are tossed away in meetings, lost to distraction, and withered away by inefficient business practices? The bulk of them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The modern workplace is sick. Chaos should not be the natural state at work. Anxiety isn\u2019t a prerequisite for progress. Sitting in meetings all day isn\u2019t required for success. These are all perversions of work – side effects of broken models and follow-the-lemming-off-the-cliff worst practices. Step aside and let the suckers jump.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Your company is a product<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Yes, the things you make are products (or services), but your company is the thing that makes those things. That\u2019s why your company should be your best product.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Everything in this book revolves around that idea. That, like product development, progress is achieved through iteration. If you want to make a product better, you have to keep tweaking, revising, and iterating. The same thing is true with a company.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Happy Pacifists<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Mark Twain nailed it: \u201cComparison is the death of joy.\u201d We\u2019re with Mark.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 8\u2019s enough, 40\u2019s plenty<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Those 40 hour weeks are made of 8-hour days. And 8 hours is actually a long time. It takes about 8 hours to fly direct from Chicago to London. Ever been on a transatlantic flight like that? It\u2019s a long flight! You think it\u2019s almost over, but you check the time and there\u2019s still 3 hours left.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Every day your workday is like flying from Chicago to London. But what does the flight feel longer than your time in the office? It\u2019s because the flight is uninterrupted, continuous time. It feels long because it is<\/em> long!<\/p>\n\n\n\n Your time in the office feels shorter because it\u2019s sliced up into a dozen smaller bits. Most people don\u2019t actually have 8 hours a day to work, they have a couple of hours. The rest of the day is stolen from them by meetings, conference calls, and other distractions. So while you may be at the office for 8 hours, it feels more like just a few.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Protectionism<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n They guard so many things, but all too often they fail to protect what\u2019s both most vulnerable and most precious: their employees\u2019 time and attention.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Companies spend their employees\u2019 time and attention as if there were an infinite supply of both. As if they cost nothing. Yet employees\u2019 time and attention are among the scarcest resources we have.<\/p>\n\n\n\n At Basecamp, we see it as our top responsibility to protect our employees\u2019 time and attention. You can\u2019t expect people to do great work if they don\u2019t have a full day\u2019s attention to devote to it. Partial attention is barely attention at all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The outwork myth<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n What\u2019s worse is when management holds up certain people as having a great \u201cwork ethic\u201d because they\u2019re always around, always available, always working. That\u2019s a terrible example of a work ethic and a great example of someone who\u2019s overworked.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A great work ethic isn\u2019t about working whenever you\u2019re called upon. It\u2019s about doing what you say you\u2019re going to do, putting in a fair day\u2019s work, respecting the work, respecting the customer, respecting coworkers, not wasting time, not creating unnecessary work for other people, and not being a bottleneck. Work ethic is about being a fundamentally good person that others can count on and enjoy working with.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Work doesn\u2019t happen at work<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Ask people where they go when they really need to get something done. One answer you\u2019ll rarely hear: the office.<\/p>\n\n\n\n That\u2019s right. When you really need to get work done you rarely go into the office. Or, if you must, it\u2019s early in the morning, late at night, or on the weekends. All the times when no one else is around. At that point it\u2019s not even \u201cthe office\u201d – it\u2019s just a quiet space where you won\u2019t be bothered.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Office hours<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Imagine the day of an expert who frequently gets interrupted by everyone else\u2019s questions. They may be fielding none, a handful, or a dozen questions in a single day, who knows. What\u2019s worse, they don\u2019t know when these questions might come up. You can\u2019t plan your own day if everyone else is using it up randomly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So we borrowed an idea from academia: office hours. All subject-matter experts at Basecamp now publish office hours. For some that means an open afternoon every Tuesday. For others it might be one hour a day. It\u2019s up to each expert to decide their availability.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But what if you have a question on Monday and someone\u2019s office hours aren\u2019t until Thursday? You wait, that\u2019s what you do. You work on something else until Thursday, or you figure it out for yourself before Thursday. Just like you would if you had to wait to talk to your professor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This might seem inefficient at first glance. Bureaucratic, even. But we\u2019ve seen otherwise. Office hours have been a big hit at Basecamp.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The owner\u2019s word weighs a ton<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n An owner unknowingly scattering people\u2019s attention is a common cause of the question \u201cWhy\u2019s everyone working so much but nothing\u2019s getting done?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n It takes great restraint as the leader of an organization not to keep lobbing ideas at everyone else. Every such idea is a pebble that\u2019s going to cause ripples when it hits the surface. Throw enough pebbles in the pond and the overall picture becomes as clear as mud.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Evading responsibility with a \u201cBut it\u2019s just a suggestion\u201d isn\u2019t going to calm the waters. Only knowing the weight of the owner\u2019s word will.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Library rules<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/strong>While closed, private individual offices are one reasonable solution, if everyone doesn\u2019t get one you\u2019ll be breeding bitterness. But there\u2019s good news: You don\u2019t have to give up on the open-plan officer per se, but you do need to give up on the typical open-office mindset.<\/p>\n\n\n\n That\u2019s what we did with our Chicago office at Basecamp. Rather than thinking of it as an office, we think of it as a library. In fact, we call our guiding principle: Library Rules.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Walk into a library anywhere in the world and you\u2019ll notice the same thing: it\u2019s quiet and calm. Everyone knows how to behave in a library. In fact, few things transcend cultures like library behavior. It\u2019s a place where people go to read, think, study, focus, and work. And the hushed, respectful environment reflects that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Isn\u2019t that what an office should be? People who visit our office for the first time are startled by the silence and serenity. It doesn\u2019t look, sound, or behave like a traditional office. That\u2019s because it\u2019s really a library for work rather than an office for distraction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In our office, if someone\u2019s at their desk, we assume they\u2019re deep in thought and focused on their work. That means we don\u2019t walk up to them and interrupt them. It also means conversations should be kept to a whisper so as not to disturb anyone who could possibly hear you. Quiet runs the show.<\/p>\n\n\n\n To account for the need for the occasional full-volume collaboration, we\u2019ve designated a handful of small rooms in the center of the office where people can go to if they need to work on something together (or make a private call).<\/p>\n\n\n\n A few simple choices, a shift in mindset, and a culture respect for everyone\u2019s time, attention, focus, and work are all that\u2019s necessary to make Library Rules your rules. People already instinctively know Library Rules, they just need to practice them at the office, too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Skeptical? Make the first Thursday of the month Library Rules day at the office. We bet your employees will beg for more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Commitment, not consensus<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Last thing: What\u2019s especially important in disagree-and-commit situations is that the final decision should be explained clearly to everyone involved. It\u2019s not just decide and go, it\u2019s decide, explain, and go.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Narrow as you go<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n It\u2019s almost impossible to work on something and not be tempted to chase all the exciting new what-if and we-could-also ideas that come up. There\u2019s always one more thing it could do, one more improvement it should have. But if you actually want to make progress, you have to narrow as you go.<\/p>\n\n\n\n After the initial dust settles, the work required to finish a project should be dwindling over time, not expanding. The deadline should be comfortably approaching, not scarily arriving. Remember: Deadlines, not dreadlines.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Have less to do<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Management scholar Peter Drucker nailed it decades ago when he said \u201cThere is nothing so useless as doing efficiently that which should not be done at all.\u201d Bam!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Jason Fried, David Heinemeier Hansson First It\u2019s crazy at work But the thing is, there\u2019s not more work to be done all of a sudden. The problem is that there\u2019s hardly any uninterrupted, dedicated time to do it. People are working more but getting less done. It doesn\u2019t add up – until you account […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4106,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[238,241,140,10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4105","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-booknotes","category-business","category-culture","category-leadership"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.mattwkane.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4105","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.mattwkane.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.mattwkane.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.mattwkane.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.mattwkane.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4105"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.mattwkane.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4105\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4107,"href":"http:\/\/www.mattwkane.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4105\/revisions\/4107"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.mattwkane.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4106"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.mattwkane.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4105"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.mattwkane.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4105"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.mattwkane.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4105"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/a>Curb Your Ambition<\/h1>\n\n\n\n
<\/a>Defend Your Time<\/h1>\n\n\n\n
<\/a>Feed Your Culture<\/h1>\n\n\n\n
<\/a>Dissect Your Process<\/h1>\n\n\n\n