Getting Real: The alone time zone.
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. [Signal vs. Noise]