As I now face the challenge of creating a work environment in which I will be comfortable and focused, I want to share with you Google’s really cool work environment:

“The culture at Google is very much like the old culture at Microsoft – back when the company felt like most employees were in their mid 20’s. These kids don’t have a life yet so they spend all of their time at work. Google provides nearly everything these people need from clothes (new T-shirts are placed in bins for people to grab twice a week!) to food – three, free, all-you-can-eat meals a day. Plus on-site health care, dental care, laundry service, gym, etc. Imagine going from college to this environment and you can see how much everyone works. People are generally in the building between 10am and about 6pm every day, but nearly everyone is on e-mail 24/7 and most people spend most of their evenings working from home.” [Src: Life at Google]

Sensory deprevation chamber to give Google employees relief from light and sound

Slides and poles (like those in fire stations) allow quick movement from floor to floor Employees eat all they want. Breakfast, lunch and dinner are all free for Google employees.

There are 4-6 ‘Zooglers’ per office. Each has at least two large screens.

Large whiteboards are everywhere incase an idea pops up

Pool tables, video games and the like are available in many areas

Employees can attend to their personal matters in these private cabin areas

At the IT Helpdesk you can grab a drink while you wait

Professional masseurs/masseusses are available (I need one of these!)

Employees can also chill out on one of these massage chairs and watch the aquariums

Lots of books in the library.

So how much would you like to work at Google?

Thanks to my mum for sending me these pictures.

With that in mind, I thought I might share some of what has worked for me (and I’ll be the first to admit that it’s an on-going process):

1. Make your tasks instantly do-able. “Design a website for XYZ Pty Ltd” might be my assigned job but it’s a mountain to undertake. Looking at something like that in my TODO list is just about enough to make my lips tremble as a freeze up in fear! (not really) If, however, I start with “Create a list of XYZ’s competitors” the task is ‘do-able’ and my day flows.

2. Keep a notepad file on your computer and keep it open, but minimised, all the time. When you think of a new task, ALT-TAB to your notepad and write it down. CTRL-S to save it. And ALT-TAB back to what you were doing. When you’ve completed a task, write “DONE” in front of it and move it to the bottom of the file so that you can see your completed task list growing!

3. Use an old-fashioned paper diary. As much as the likes of Backpackit.com and Outlook offer great calendar interfaces (and believe me, I’ve tried them all) this nerd always returns to the tried and tested paper diary. It’s instantly available, there’s no load time, there’s no fooling around with any interfaces more complex than un-capping a biro and scribbling words.

4. Turn off automatic email checking and ween yourself off email. I used to carry around a Blackberry until I realised that I just didn’t need to know what was in my inbox every minute of the day. While you’re at it, get at least one task out of the way before you check your email in the morning.

5. Track your “time expenditure”. If you end your day thinking, “Where the hell did all that time go?” it might be a good idea to track your “time expenditure” for a day or two. Some people do it every day but I think that’s a bit extreme. Once you’ve identified your time wasters, you can get rid of them.

6. (Free bonus tip) Remember the 80/20 rule. 20% of your efforts are resulting in 80% of your results. Cut the fat!

At the moment I’m developing a very fast and lightweight Windows application that is based on #2 but makes it even quicker and easier to manage your task list. I’ll let you know when it’s launched (shouldn’t be long now).