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Blink 3 of 8 - The 5 AM Club
by Robin Sharma
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The Joy of Work summary
Bruce Daisley
30 Ways to Fix Your Work Culture and Fall in Love With Your Job Again
23 mins
Topics
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The Joy of Work
Summary of 8 key ideas
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Key idea 1 of 8
Distractions are detrimental to work efficiency and a Monk Mode Morning can help counter this problem.
If you’ve worked in an office, you may have had bosses or company executives that would stay hidden away in her office for hours on end. Perhaps you even thought poorly of them for being so detached and unsociable. However, if we look at the reasons behind good working habits, those aloof bosses may have been onto something.
For starters, keeping your workspace free of distractions is a key component to working efficiently.
In 2011, Danish management researcher J.H. Pejtersen conducted a study that revealed how people working in open-plan office spaces tended to take more sick days than workers who have private offices. The study also showed that those working in an open office space tend to be interrupted from their work on an average of once every three minutes.
These breaks in concentration aren’t just due to colleagues popping over to ask you a question – they also take the form of distracting conversations coming from neighboring desks and cubicles. What makes these interruptions so bad for your efficiency is that once your concentration is broken, it takes a long time for you to get back to that same level of focus.
This is the same reason why you shouldn’t try to juggle too many tasks at the same time. In his book Quality Software Management, the computer scientist Gerald Weinberg found that software managers who tried to jump between five different projects during the same day would only manage to work at a quarter of the efficiency they’d have achieved if they stuck to one project at a time.
One excellent way of reducing distractions is to practice the Monk Mode Morning, which involves shutting out all incoming calls and visitors until 11:00 a.m.
At first, your office mates may not appreciate this distraction barricade, but if you explain that it isn’t about being antisocial, but rather an attempt to put in a few hours of uninterrupted work before engaging with phone calls and meetings, then they’ll likely understand.
If Monk Mode Morning sounds appealing but you don’t have an office door to enforce it, you can try using headphones until 11:00 a.m. in order to create your own space.
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What is The Joy of Work about?
The Joy of Work (2019) offers tips and techniques for making work less stressful and a lot more fun and productive. It examines many of the productivity pitfalls that can be found in today’s workplace, and provides solutions for both increased efficiency and more peace of mind. It also provides ideas on how to improve the atmosphere in the office and with your colleagues in order to engage in effective and harmonious teamwork.
Best quote from The Joy of Work
So next time youre in a lift, press the button and then wait. Those extra few seconds might be your path to a brilliant new idea.
—Bruce Daisley
Who should read The Joy of Work?
- Employees
- Managers and CEOs
- Coaches and psychologists
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