Inbetweenisode 18: Open Plan Offices Suck - And What to do If You Have to Work in One

Oct 21, 2019

10:54

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It’s no secret that open plan offices suck. This has been confirmed by a recent study from Harvard. Their only redeeming quality is that they’re cheap – great if the only thing that matters to the work that gets done in them is cost. For everything else, they’re terrible.

One of the things open plan offices seem to assume (in addition to assuming human beings are unaffected by distractions) is that all that matters is what happens from the neck up. This directly contradicts a basic truth about biology, decision-making and something that countless guests on the All Things Risk podcast have said – the mind and body are part of the same system.

In this short In-betweenisode, I offer some thoughts on how to do great work and make quality decisions in spite of the constraints open plan offices generate.

Show notes:

Article: It’s Official: Open Plan Offices are the Dumbest Management Fad of All Time

Article: This is Nuts: It Takes Nearly 30 Minutes to Refocus Once You’ve Been Distracted

The Pomodoro Technique

Article: How to Calm Your Mind Using a Simple Breathing Technique

Coffee naps / espresso naps - scientist agree that they work

Article: How Plants at Work Can Improve Wellbeing and Efficiency

What is a terrarium? Check out Leafage to find out a bit more

Music for concentration:

What are "Binaural Beats?"

Lo Fi beats for concentrating and studying

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