What’s So Great About Proximity Anyway?
August 30th, 2007 (2:00pm) Judi Sohn 4 Comments
For me, there’s nothing better for my productivity than working on my own. I like working around people, but I prefer when those people are strangers. As much as I enjoy my bi-monthly trips to my organization’s headquarters 200 miles away, I get the most done when I’m here in my home office. I can ignore an IM that comes when I’m too busy. It’s far more difficult (and rude) to ignore a colleague who’s chattering 3 feet away.
Lifehacker points to a post on LifeClever where 37signals’ founder Jason Fried comes to a similar conclusion:
Interruption destroys your zone. If you’re working on something and someone taps you on the shoulder, you gotta stop working on that thing and answer their question and whatever you need to do. And that just takes you out of your zone. It takes you out of that mind set of getting stuff done. And you don’t fall right back into, it takes awhile to get back it it. So we’ve just found interruption is something that gets in the way most of the time. So that’s why we try to stay from one another. If we need together, we get together. But it should be at the last resort, and the exception, not the rule.
What’s your take? Do you find that you are more productive away from your colleagues?
4 Comments Post your own comment
roberthauk says: August 30th, 2007 2:11pm
I am used to working alone at home and I love it. When I tried out some 6 months ago to work in a design office it didn’t go well. I like being distracted when I want to (which sounds pretty dumb per definition) - but definitely not when I’m into something. Therefore I started freelancing 6 years ago and despite the fact that half of my time I work for people I never met or know (taxes etc.) I’m still satisfied.
theWealthyCanadian says: August 30th, 2007 3:08pm
Multitasking used to be the buzzword in business. However, more and more I’m seeing research that points to multitasking being counterproductive. That it actually takes more time to shift between two tasks rather than focusing on one at a time. Furthermore, the time to switch increases as the complexity of the task increases. Even simple distractions like email and your coworker stopping to ask a question cause the switch between tasks that takes time.
This is not to say that you cannot work on two things in approximately the same time. When you hit a wall on one task, take a break or get to some of the other “to do’s” on your list (this would be a great time to check your email).
I know that I like to chat with people or be otherwise distracted at times. But not when I’m really into something and just starting to get my head around a problem.
Marcus Solorio says: August 30th, 2007 5:02pm
While human face-to-face interaction is not always required, or even desired for that matter, I feel that having my colleagues readily available, via IM, or even phone, is invaluable…thoughout the course of a work day.
Also, face-to-face interaction can be very productive, depending on the task/project.
I find that strategic sessions, or project planning, etc is dependent upon good collaboration, especially vis-a-vis, while the more technically task-oriented the work, the more solitude is preferred, in my experience.
I work in an office where everyone has cube space only, including the President of the company, so solitude is often found in using a conference room as an ad-hoc office, or sometimes at the local coffee shop ;-)
FiZ says: August 31st, 2007 6:41am
Regardless of the commute time and hassle, I have one major argument for and against working in the office. One the positive: when I’m asking someone for advice on a problem, it helps me to be face-to-face with them rather than just IMing or even talking over the phone. The personal interaction helps me a lot more. However, my company seems to stress now and then that I “get to know my team”, which I would have no problem with normally, except for the fact that I can’t personally identify with them and also, when they have a minute to chit-chat, I don’t (and vice-versa). So sure, I’d love to friendly, when I’m not swamped with deadlines that you moved up from “sometime in the future” to “next week”.