How mySugr enables my productivity
Well, it’s definitely not by feeding me with sugar. But how many stories about people doing most of their work after hours or while traveling, have you heard recently?
More often, a usual work space turns into the exact opposite of a productive environment. Unnecessary meetings, loud and open offices spaces as well as colleagues, who are constantly not available when you need them. Sounds familiar to you?
Well, that is definitely not how I want to work. I do not want to waste time and only start being productive and catching up on work outside of regular work hours. I like being focused and productive both at work as well as outside of work. In order to enable and implement this state of mind, I need a routine and creativity. To read a little more details on how it works for me, check my other blog post about what do I need to be productive.
Iterating an office space, why not?
Fortunately, mySugr puts a lot of effort into giving us all an opportunity to work in the way we need to. Our new office in the very heart of Vienna doesn’t remind me of any usual office that I’ve seen before as for example the offices of fancy Silicon Valley startups, which are designed to make employees stay there for as long as possible. Of course, if needed I sometimes also stay longer in our office. But it honestly is not needed very often and I actually never feel that the company expects me to do so regularly.
What I like is that the company treats our office as our product. With learnings and iterations, mySugr is always evolving and improving even though the number of employees is constantly growing. Each team has their own homebase where they can work together. Nevertheless, the homebase is not only a place for collaboration within the teams. When you are there, it means that others can approach you. Of course, when someone is really focused with their headphones on, I will wait a moment or come back later. My homebase is where I spend most of my time because I found a great spot there to do my focus work. I usually don’t need more than 30–40 minutes focus time a day, so it works very well for me.
Focus vs. Creativity
We also have phone booths for calls or Skype meetings. Don’t tell anyone, but when I see that I am not blocking anyone from using them for calls, I sometimes also use a phone booth for a quick individual focus session. Nevertheless, we also have designed spaces for those that need longer focus sessions. It is a space where I can mostly see our designers and developers when they don’t want to be distracted by others.
Furthermore, I really like our cafeteria. It’s where we hang out, make coffee or tea, cook lunch — yes, we have a kitchen where some of us cook — or play table tennis. It often reminds me of working in a coffee house because in this area you will never find complete silence. So, if you are the most productive in crowded places like Starbucks, this would be your go-to working area.
I know this is not what an average office space looks like. But it feels great to be in such an extraordinary place, and many partners and friends who come to visit us, really like it as well. Overall, our office has quite a few more things to offer. Some spaces are still in progress and some I don’t use that much at the moment, as for example the rooftop terrace due to weather conditions. If you got curious and want to visit our office, let me know.
I think that the beauty of our office and its people is that the story of productivity from my colleagues could be completely different to mine. One reason for that might be that we all have very different backgrounds and many diverse teams. In any case, in my opinion this amazing work environment that I have talked about usually leads to a great level of productivity for all of us. Of course, we also have basic structures and ground rules, but except from that we can work how we want and how we need to in order to succeed as a team.
