Many people ask us when we will get an office. We immediately replied that we don’t have plans to get an Office for TeamGantt. We wouldn’t get any work done. Okay, we might get some things done but we wouldn’t be as productive as we are now.
Why we started working remotely for the first time
Because we were unable to afford an office, we started working from our homes. We wanted to build the product ourselves, and be as productive with our limited resources as possible. John and I began this project back in 2005, when we had no customers and an idea for a web-based gantt chart.
Nearly five years later, TeamGantt is growing faster than we could have imagined and has helped thousands companies around the globe manage their projects. We still work from home and Meredith, one of our friends, has been hired to teach others how to use TeamGantt. We all love working from home and we love it.
There are many distractions in offices
We all know what it’s really like to work in an office. It can be fun, but there are meetings to attend, as well as interruptions from coworkers asking questions, small talk, and so on. Because it doesn’t allow enough time for the meeting to take place before or after lunch, it can make an entire afternoon inefficient.
It’s also less likely that any real work will happen if you have a few co-workers who stop by during these times. Some employees working from home might be able get more done in a 2-hour work session than others who work in an office with interruptions.
It is possible to argue that 3 people working remotely could be as productive as 6 people working in an actual office. This is especially true if the 3 people can prioritize and focus on work that has a real impact on business.
Remote work allows everyone to focus for long periods of time
Working remotely is one of the main reasons we are able to achieve so much with only three team members. No interruptions allow us to do long stretches of work. There are no meetings, no interruptions, and no one walks by our desks to ask us questions or have small talk. We can focus for hours at once.
Every morning, I choose my most important task and start working on it before I check email or any other emails. I work for approximately 1.5 hours before taking a break to respond to emails and grab a snack. I’m ready for lunch and can go at it for another hour.
It is crucial to have an hour or two of uninterrupted work when designing new features or coding new parts of the app. A five-minute interruption can cost you half an hour of focus. This is counting the time it takes for you to get back on track and find your way. It can take some time to get back into the zone. It can be difficult to regain your focus after you have lost it.
Other great benefits include no commute, better work/life balance, and being available for your family. For us, the most important thing has been getting multiple uninterrupted work sessions each day.
Yes, offices can be a great place to collaborate, brainstorm, or have face-to-face communication. We still have many ways to do this, which we will talk about in a future post!
We’ve also decided to share more information about how we operate as a company, and how our company culture has evolved over the years. We are a unique company because we have thousands of customers, but we are a small team. We have never raised any funding. We try to