"Managers and bosses will often have you think that the real distractions at work are things like Facebook and Twitter and YouTube and other websites, and in fact, they'll go so far as to actually ban these sites at work," says Fried, "The real problems are what I like to call the M&Ms, the Managers and the Meetings." He describes the work of managers by saying that "they don't really do the work, so they have to make sure everyone else is doing the work, which is an interruption." Meetings are not work either: they only force people unnecessarily to stop doing their work and start doing something completely different. So how to make working more effective?
In his speech at the TEDxMidWest 2010 conference, Jason Fried suggested three options. The first was to try "no-talk Thursdays": once a month organise a Thursday afternoon when nobody will talk. "What you'll find is that a tremendous amount of work actually gets done when no one talks to each other."
The other two tips are focused on disruptive communication with colleagues and on meeting organisation. Together with the whole video, you can listen to them at http://www.ted.com/talks/jason_fried_why_work_doesn_t_happen_at_work.
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