If it works for IBM and came from Harvard….

• Time limits on e-mail use, and even banning e-mail on certain days
• No-technology days, where employees clean their work space and tidy up the paperwork
• Programs and processes that encourage face-to-face contact

These enforcements are by department and not company-wide in general.  Evidently, this idea of nursery schoolesque quiet time came from research at Harvard Business School:

“Ten years ago, Harvard Business School’s Leslie Perlow famously chronicled the interruption of a high-tech software company. Its engineers were interrupted so often they had to work nights and weekends. After studying the workplace for nine months, the source of the dysfunction became clear: No one could get anything done because of the bombardment of messages. Perlow came up with an intervention: Quiet Time. For four hours in the morning, the 17 engineers worked alone. All messaging and phone contact was banned. In the afternoon, communication could resume. Given time to concentrate, the engineers got a project for a color printer completed without the graveyard shift.”

The idea is to separate the over-worked employee from distracting interruptions (is that redundant?) so that they can fulfill their work commitments in a reasonable work week, thus enabling them much-deserved down time and weekends.

How about you?

What would a tech-free day look like?  Maybe you’re like me and your work centers around technology, so it seems impossible.  But what if you signed or logged out of nonessential programs? What if you turned off your cell phone (gasp)?   Furthermore, what if you barricaded yourself in a small closet with no refrigerator and no one to talk to?  I imagine you’d have a pretty productive day, but that you would emerge slightly lonely and more than a little ready to turn it all back on again.

So, I’d suggest periods of time, such as 2 hours a couple days a week, to power  down nonessentials and focus on specific tasks or phone calls.  To achieve the same level of fewer distractions, what about white noise?  I’ll even suggest a free white noise generator.  Bottom line, like this post suggests, it’s all about boundaries- whether you’re protecting your work time or your down time, certain boundaries need to be in place to help you guard your time and how you use it.