F3 so far

Some time ago at Ai we started running an experiment that eventually became called "Fuss-Free Fridays", or F3. The core of the idea was that we wouldn't allow meetings to be scheduled on Fridays (barring emergencies), thus ensuring that people would have time in which they could be assured they could get work done. We gave people the "right of refusal" for Friday meetings.

Here's what we've learned so far:

• Creating "protected" time zones is great - during the course of the week it's possible to segment my tasks in a way that I can direct them towards the part of the week that is the most appropriate for them. If I find something that requires a long uninterrupted period of time then I tend to shoot it towards Fridays.
• For me there's an additional reduction of stress involved in knowing I'm not going to be interrupted. Some things require deep concentration, and when I get pulled out of that it drives me crazy. F3 protects this.
  
• One unintended consequence is that its made the other four days of the work week very meeting-heavy. I guess that's because we're compressing 5 days of meetings into 4 days. That makes some days (like yesterday) back to back meetings.

Some people complain that "F3" is dead whenever a meeting gets scheduled on a Friday. But that's not the point: Fridays are now meeting light, providing a protected zone of high-productivity time during the week. And besides, there's bagels when I come in in the morning.

UPDATE: Another side effect of F3 is that Wertheimer and I keep posting on the same day.