WEBVTT

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- All right, just printed the signs.

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Let's see if we can be productive.

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(upbeat music)

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- Welcome back to "Secrets of
the Most Productive People."

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I'm here today with Talib Visram

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who tried out three different techniques

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to boost his productivity
in an open office.

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So, Talib, do you wanna talk about

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what those techniques were?

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- Sure, yeah, so the first
one was we put up two

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Do Not Disturb signs right above my desk.

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The second was I got some
noise canceling headphones

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and listed to a playlist for an hour,

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and the third was I went to a coffee shop

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and worked remotely for an hour.

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- So let's start with the
first method you tried.

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How did you approach it?

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- I told the boss, but
other than that, you know,

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I just put up the signs

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and kinda just saw people's reactions.

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Honestly, it was pretty terrible

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because I was very self-conscious.

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I could only think of, you know,

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what are people thinking about this?

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What are people's reactions?

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Am I being rude?

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It just seemed very
passive-aggressive to me I think.

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- I think all you just need
is a please and a comma

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and you're set.

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- The next one you tried was
noise canceling headphones,

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and I think also playing music.

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- I created a Spotify playlist

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of kind of instrumental music, no lyrics,

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and so we'll see if that works.

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It was kind of a revelation
because, you know,

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I've thought that this didn't work for me

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'cause I've tried this a lot in the past,

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but it's always been music with lyrics.

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Obviously when there's lyrics,

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you're concentrating on the lyrics,

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but the instrumental thing, you know,

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I think it actually worked for me,

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and I think I would actually do it again.

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- So it's safe to say this
was much more effective

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than your Do Not Disturb sign.

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- [Talib] Yes.

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- Your third method was to go
to a separate place altogether

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leave the office for a little bit

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and try and carve out
some time to do deep work.

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I know that's certainly
something I can relate to.

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I find it really, really
hard to write in the office.

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- I just feel like coffee shops have

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the right amount of noise,
kind of that ambient noise.

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No one's talking too loudly.

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It's just kind of the perfect
kind of level of noise.

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- Overall how do you feel your
productivity challenge went

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in trying to beat open
office distractions?

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- Yeah, so, you know, I
think I discovered a lot more

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than I thought I would.

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Like I said, kind of the headphones thing

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was kind of a revelation,
and I'm gonna kind of

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add to my instrumental
playlist and make that a thing.

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Maybe purchase some noise
canceling headphones.

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And I also learned

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that the Do Not Disturb
signs were very aggressive

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and felt very self-conscious about that,

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and, you know, the coffee shop
kind of backed up the notion

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that, yeah, that's where I work best.

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But like I said, you know, my role is such

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that I have to be in the office,

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so I think the headphone's
gonna be the way to go.

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(upbeat music)

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