Jason Fried has a radical theory of working: that the office isn’t a good place to do it. In his talk, he lays out the main problems (call them the M&Ms) and offers three suggestions to make work work. (Filmed at TEDxMidWest.)

.

Glossary

• basement – the floor of a building which is partly or entirely below ground level
• commute – a regular journey of some distance to and from one’s place of work
• shred – tear or cut into tiny pieces
• distraction – a thing that prevents someone from concentrating on something else
• enlighten – give (someone) greater knowledge and understanding about a subject or situation
• encourage – give support, confidence, or hope to (someone)

.

Think about it

Answer the questions below. Pause at the times indicated in brackets.

• Why do people go to the office every day? (0:58)
• Where do people go and what do they need to get their work done? (3:10)
• Does your day at work look similar to what Jason Fried has described? (3:55)
• What do people really need to get the work done? Do you agree? (5:01)
• What are the similarities between sleep and work? (6:42)
• What is the difference between distractions at the office and those at home? Which are more counterproductive and why? (7:45)
• What are M&Ms? (9:38)
• What is Jason’s Fried opinion about meetings? Why are they counterproductive? (11:24)
• What three suggestions does Jason Fried have to improve the quality of work at the office?

.

Practice makes perfect

Fill in the blank spaces with the missing words.

And what you find is that, especially ________ creative people — designers, programmers, writers, engineers, thinkers — that people really need long stretches of uninterrupted time to get something ________. You cannot ask somebody to be creative ________ 15 minutes and really think about a problem. You might have a quick idea, but to be ________ deep thought about a problem and really consider a problem carefully, you need long stretches of uninterrupted time. And even though the workday is typically eight hours, ________ many people here have ever ________ eight hours to themselves at the office? How about seven hours? Six? Five? Four? When’s the last time you ________ three hours to yourself at ________ office? Two hours? One, maybe? Very, very few people actually have long stretches of uninterrupted time at ________ office. And this is why people choose to do work ________ home, or they might go to ________ office, but they might go to the office really early in ________ day, or late ________ night when no one’s around, or they stick around after everyone’s left, or they go in ________ the weekends, or they get work done ________ the plane, or they get work done in ________ car or ________ the train because there are ________ distractions.

.

Explore it more

6 Steps to Make Working from Home Work

(1445)