Improvements: Quiet Time

May 20th, 2015 | by ViaDataWebAdmin |

We at ViaData were feeling the pinch of projects, where we would get the impression that we were not nailing our time schedules down as they should be and hence there was room for improvement. We attributed this to various factors including:

  • Answering incoming emails
  • Telephone calls
  • Requests from other team members
  • Visits from customers and partners
  • Outside visits on location
  • Conferences
  • Projects competing for time
  • Travel time
  • General office distraction

We were finding that days would go by and we wouldn’t move forward with critical work items on our plate and the common response was “where did the day go”. We were all starting to feel frustrated!

Improving

As a company or as individuals, we were not improving on this front. In fact, it was impeding our progress and we couldn’t allow that to happen.

After giving the problem some thought during a team meeting in April 2015, we decided to implement a three hour “Quiet Time” each morning from 08H30 until 12H30 in order to improve our work quality, output and time management.

Quiet Time 

Before Quiet Time, each person needs to be 100% sure they know exactly what they will do and achieve during the Quiet Time and ask questions if they are not sure.

 Quiet Time Rules

  • Switch off your email.
  • Assign one person per day to answer and filter incoming calls.
  • Work “head-down” for 3 hours.
  • At the end – take stock of what has been achieved and record the time.

Quiet Time Improvements:

  • Time management
  • Work quality
  • Work output
  • Project scheduling
  • Efficient, dedicated help on intricate issues.
  • Concentrated effort by our developers
  • Undistracted work that is less prone to errors
  • Downtime has been eradicated
  • Practical, dedicated, focussed, distraction free activity in the office.

In fact, Quiet Time has worked so well, that we are considering further improvement by implementing a second dedicated Quiet Time period in the afternoon that will ensure that our very best client dedicated effort is being implemented for the vast majority of the day. The middle and late afternoon periods of the work day will be used for personal time, catching up on phone calls, work breaks and lunch.

If you have an idea that will help improve work output, please write about it in the comments section!

ViaData – Improving Every Day

 

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