Jason Fried Quotes

Working in an office with an array of electronic devices is like trying to get something done at home with half a dozen small children around. The calls for attention are constant.

The average American worker has fifty interruptions a day, of which seventy percent have nothing to do with work.

I yield to no one in my admiration for the office as a social center, but it's no place actually to get any work done.

People put on their earphones, they lay out their phones, they put - open up their computers, and they convince themselves that they're most productive when they're focused on their e-mail, when, really, they're ignoring the cafeteria, the watercooler, the meetings with colleagues, the times when really the creativity, collaboration happens.

Location is all about the efficiency of work for me.

I'll read anything. In fact, I'll read while I'm doing other things, which is not a good idea.

No one would choose to be jerked randomly off task again and again until you have half a dozen things you're trying to get done, all at the same time.

I can't focus when there's too many things around. Whenever I used to go to the office, I used to always say, 'Tidy up.'

Possibly I am difficult to live with, but I don't bring my work home much. I'm either busy or not busy. And I don't work from home. I have an office here which has a white wall. No view. I did try working in a room with a view but it was too interesting. Too distracting.

I think we've all been in the middle of doing something we cared about, when someone coming in the room and saying 'hello' was annoying. I personally can understand that, as someone who tries to create.

I can't really work on more than one thing at a time.

I find it easier to work when it's quiet.

A work-only zone does wonders for your productivity. So, I prefer working at the office now. I spend 8 focused hours there, then I go home to be present with my family.

One look at an email can rob you of 15 minutes of focus. One call on your cell phone, one tweet, one instant message can destroy your schedule, forcing you to move meetings, or blow off really important things, like love, and friendship.

When I'm concentrating, I can be fixed in place for hours. In fact, there was a joke in my office that everybody would come and chat outside my door because they knew - no matter how loud they talked - if I was concentrating, it would not disturb me at all.

Intellectual work is essentially a lonely process, and if you can find a way of doing something so that you're in company without being disturbed, that, for me, is the critical thing. I often get to feel isolated so often if I'm sitting either where there aren't people or isn't a view.

Programmers work in bursts of productivity. Then, they let the brain rest and get back into it. A lot about the office world is not a great fit for me.

Any distraction tends to get in the way of being an effective gangster.

I'm a lot more productive in an actual office. I love being around our other editors, and going there every day alleviates some of the guilt that I think many self-employed people feel when you know you could always be working from your laptop at home. I feel so relaxed there, while completely engaged and inspired.

Very, very few people actually have long stretches of uninterrupted time at an office.

At Ford, one of the behaviors is you listen, and you don't have side conversations during the meeting. It's just so important everybody stays focused.

If you ask people where they go when they really need to get work done, very few will respond 'the office.' If they do say the office, they'll include a qualifier such as 'super-early in the morning before anyone gets in,' or 'I stay late at night after everyone's left,' or 'I sneak in on the weekend.'

It's incredibly hard to get meaningful work done when your workday has been shredded into work moments.

If you aren't taking regular breaks every couple of hours, your brain won't benefit from that extra cup of coffee.

Nothing interferes with my concentration. You could put on an orgy in my office and I wouldn't look up. Well, maybe once.