The way we measure productivity is flawed. People checking their BlackBerry over dinner is not the measure of productivity. — Tim Ferriss

We’re into the third week of our experiment. All through the past 2 weeks, we’ve been trying to focus on real productivity.

We wanted to explore how does reduced number of working hours impact our productivity. We also changed our time-schedule. We start early, we work for fewer number of hours and we leave early.

So what have the first two weeks taught us? Well, here’s the report.

It’s easy to fall back into the old pattern.

Is 6 equal to 8?

In my previous post, I had reported the feedback my colleague and I had collected from my team.

Almost everyone had agreed that though the working hours had been reduced to 6 hours instead of 8, they seemed to be doing the same amount of work (or more).

Getting done more in less time.

When they were in the office for 8 hours, they could afford wasting a few minutes here, losing a few minutes there. Now with only 6 hours in hand, they themselves embraced self-discipline. No time to slacken.

The feedback was indeed encouraging.

But the matter doesn’t end there.

People started fitting into the new schedule (which they promptly did).

The 6 hours became the new 8 hours.

Without they themselves consciously realizing it, some people slowly slid back into the old pattern.

They unwittingly let themselves to let time slip by. Earlier they were whiling away ‘x’ minutes out of the total 8 hours, now they were idling away ‘y’ minutes out of 6 hours. The proportion wasn’t changing.

The time-waster bug

No prizes for guessing that the most productive time of the new workday was the first slot of two hours. Always.

People would be at the peak of their productivity at these times. And these are also the hours when one needs to guard against time-wasters.

Some, like the social tools FB and Twitter, reading e-newspapers, playing games, Whatsapp were clearly visible time-wasters.

But...

The invisible time-wasters are more dangerous.

One of them is co-working.

Yes. Co-working is a potential time-waster, if not handled wisely.

It is nearly impossible to predict when will co-working spiral off into an unproductive conversation. Going the wrong way, it can sap the fire, the energy of everyone involved.

So, we needed to do something. But what?

The “New and Improved” DND

You’ll recall we had marked 8:30 to 10:00 as DND (Do Not Disturb) hours. While the DND was still there, the implementation was liberal. So now we tightened the DND.

Now on, DND is implemented in a stricter way. No exceptions.

Any task that needs to be discussed needs to be taken up before the DND.

Or it will have to wait.

Team members feel - and we agree - giving them uninterrupted 2 hours in the early part of the morning lets them fully capitalise on their energy levels.

Secondly, it helps everyone plan their activities better - if I need to ask someone something, I can’t simply barge in. I must schedule it for the right time, so that I don’t waste someone else’s time.

Finally, there could be one more positive outcome. Occasionally, people have this urge to instantly consult their team-members when they hit a roadblock. This means they might not have put in the right amount of time trying to solve the issue themselves.

With the DND firmly in place, now they will need to wait. In the process of waiting, they are more likely to themselves figure out the solution to the problem they were facing. That gives them a chance to grow.

Having said that, I also reckon the benefits of co-working. So post-break we allow people to do co-working.

Dozing off is ok - well, almost...

I had anticipated the new schedule will alter very slightly the sleeping patterns of some of our team-members. Earlier when we started office at 9:30, people could afford getting up at 7:30 or later and still making it to the office well in time.

Now we start our work at 7:30.

Some of us (me included :), were bound to feel sleepy once in a while with the new schedule.

So we took the simple way out.

Feeling sleepy? No problem

Switch off your computer and Zzzz... away. Right in the office, right on your desk.

There’s no point carrying on. You’re certainly not your most efficient self when there’s sleep knocking at the door of your mind.

So it’s fine, go ahead. Go to sleep. No issues.

Taking longer breaks? Ummm...

By the 2nd week, we had instances when people approached me with a request that they had to attend to something personal outside the office and hence needed to take a break of 1 hour or 2 hours or whatever.

They earnestly promised to compensate by staying back and they honored the promise. They will now leave at 3 pm, instead of 1:30. Or later.

Sounds fair.

But I had second thoughts, I didn't want longer breaks during the working hours.

So while, we haven’t made a policy for this, I like this:

Don’t take long breaks.

If it’s really that urgent, go ahead and leave for the day. If you take a break and come back, you’re unlikely to be at the same level of productivity as before. It’d be about clocking a certain number of hours, rather than about productivity.

This has been my learning so far. I’ll keep you updated what happens in the next week.

What do you think?

Is it working?

Any suggestions?

Curious about Week 3 learnings? Check out here



