Working Late

I had to work late tonight. The big problem I face these days is that I have lots of things I have to deliver, but I'm in meetings all day. Need to find a way to balance that out. It was a problem I often had at Microsoft and I never really found a solution to that one.

The nice thing about working late is that I can actually get a lot done. There are a few things that are guaranteed when you work late

• You won't get pulled into any meetings


• Nobody will come by to distract you


• You won't get any e-mails to distract you


• You will actually focus on getting done what needs getting done because the sooner you get it done, the sooner you get home

One of the things that has caught my attention, and frankly bothered me a little, was the fact that so many employees at my company come to work late. In L.A. it can make sense since traffic eases up. Who wouldn't want to avoid traffic into Downtown L.A.? But it would make even more sense if they came late to stay late, because, quite frankly, we would be a much more productive company.

Alas, even though I'm almost always one of the first ones in (including today) there was nobody to be seen when I left the office. Heck, most people had scattered four hours before I finally called it a night.