Getting Real: The alone time zone 47 comments Latest by Joshua Volz

To Get Real, get alone.

37signals is spread out over 4 cities and 8 time zones. From Provo Utah to Copenhagen Denmark, the five of us are 8 hours apart. We embrace this constraint. We’re always looking to embrace constraints. The presence of constraints make you creative. The more constraints you lift, the less creative you become.

What’s the side effect of being 8 time zones apart? Alone time. There are about 4-5 hours during the day that we’re all up and working together. The other times we’re sleeping while David is working. And during the other times we’re working while David is sleeping. This gives us about half of the day together. And half alone.

Guess which part of day we get the most work done? The alone part. This is why many people prefer to work either in the early morning or the late nights — they’re not being bothered. And when you have a long stretch when you aren’t being bothered you can get in the zone. The zone is when you are most productive. It’s when you don’t have to mindshift between various tasks. It’s when you aren’t interrupted to answer a question or look up something or send an email or answer an IM. The alone zone is where real progress is made.