book: Getting Real - Alone Time

People need uninterrupted time to get things done

37signals is spread out over four cities and eight time zones. From Provo, Utah to Copenhagen, Denmark, the five of us are eight hours apart. One positive side effect of this eight hour difference is alone time.

There are only about 4-5 hours during the day that we're all up and working together. At other times, the us team is sleeping while David, who's in Denmark, is working. The rest of the time, we're working while David is sleeping. This gives us about half of the day together and the other half alone.

Guess which part of the day we get the most work done? The alone part. It's not that surprising really. Many people prefer to work either early in the morning or late at night — times when they're not being bothered.

When you have a long stretch when you aren't 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.

from: 37 signals - getting real