Atlassian business software giant pushes out free Chrome extension to help fix bad workplace habits

When Dom Price realised there was a big problem with his working day he started asking colleagues one question. The answer was revealing.

Less than three weeks into the new year you could be forgiven for already looking forward to your next holiday as the reality of workplace life sets in.

If you were looking to ease back into the swing of things but have already been disappointed to find you’ve got more work than time, the radical approach of workplace expert Dom Price might appeal.

Mr Price has been predicting the future of the workplace for Australia’s largest tech success Atlassian's for more than six years now, but one drastic move he made freed up more time than anything else.

“I cancelled all my meetings,” Mr Price told news.com.au.

Atlassian's Dom Price cancelled all his meetings and asked the organisers to explain why he needed to be there. Two thirds couldn’t tell him.

Instead of clogging his calendar by blindly accepting invitations to meetings whenever they were requested, he changed his approach after a quarterly reflection.

“Every quarter I look back at my previous quarter and ask myself four questions: what did I love, what did I loathe, what did I long for and what did I learn.”

Mr Price wanted to do more coaching and mentoring with colleagues, but there wasn’t enough time in his calendar to actually do any of it. So he cleared his schedule, declining all his meetings and responding to clarify whether he was actually required there and what was expected of him if he attended.

“It’s like a spring clean, dust gathers in your house, meetings gather in your calendar,”

he said.

The simple act of asking those organising the meeting to justify why he should be there was enough to solve the problem, two-thirds of the meetings didn’t end up being rescheduled.

An example of a tip given by Atlassian's new Daily Unlearnings extension.

It is aimed at breaking bad workplace habits and replacing them with new ones.

The time saving results of Mr Price’s experiment show that the old ways of doing things aren’t always the best, one of several “unlearnings” that are at the heart of Atlassian’s newest offering.

The software company – that started with $10,000 in credit card debt by Mike Cannon-Brookes and Scott Farquhar and later grew to such value the two university mates eventually bought neighbouring harbourside mansions – usually produces software to help businesses increase their productivity and collaborate better.

Atlassian co-founders Mike Cannon-Brookes (L) and Scott Farquhar (R), two of Australia’s most successful tech entrepreneurs.

The newest piece of its product portfolio is a little different and much simpler: a free extension to the Google Chrome browser used by the majority of people to access the internet.

The Daily Unlearnings extension, released on Tuesday, replaces your bland new tab page in Chrome with daily tips and wisdom to help you “unlearn” unhelpful work habits and replace them with better ones.

The focus on breaking bad habits extends to getting to know your colleagues to create a more open and connected workforce that can work better together.

By offering one piece of simple advice daily, the extension hopes to avoid what Mr Price calls “knowledge obesity”; where we are told and learn about so many new productivity enhancing techniques that we never actually use any of them.

“If you go back a few generations you acquired knowledge and became successful,” Mr Price explained. “With the internet knowledge is now ubiquitous, we know too much and don’t do anything with it.”

The extension serves up daily tips and ideas to help you find new ways of thinking and going about your business, similar to mental health apps like Headspace but aimed at promoting productivity rather than merely getting through the day.

Clarifying whether or not you’re actually required in a meeting before attending is the best way to avoid being bored in one.

While “the future of work” is a topic mainly focused on wringing every last drop of productivity out of workers until they can finally be supplanted by robots, Atlassian’s new extension is supposed to help you have an easier time and get more done at work.

Mr Price said the extension can also improve workplace culture by helping you make small, gradual improvements rather than changing everything you do overnight.

“We’re not looking for quantum shifts,” he said. “We’re trying to drive small incremental changes.”

Those small changes can help shift entire workplace cultures once the example is set, and Mr Price said it was important workers stood up for themselves.

“You own your career and your time,” he said, adding it’s reasonable and indeed preferable to simply ask what your role in a meeting will be, “rather than turning up and sitting on your laptop”.

Running out of time to complete your work can be minimised by focusing on what’s really important and allocating your time correctly.

Some of the “unlearning” behaviour has the potential to go against the grain of company culture, their actual purpose is to challenge the conventional and outdated ideas of what makes people more productive.

“Have you ever woken up in the morning and thought, ‘I can’t wait to be more productive today?” Mr Price asked rhetorically. “It’s not a necessary goal.”

He said many existing ideas were still mired in an outdated view of productivity that goes back to the Industrial Revolution, where factory workers were judged on their tangible and quantifiable output for the day.

Productivity gets harder to quantify in a knowledge-economy where the impact and worth of someone’s work can’t necessarily be determined by the amount of meetings they attend or how much code they write.

“Now we’re more creative, curious … we want to have an impact and purpose as well as enjoy life and not just work,” Mr Price said.

He credited the oft-criticised millennial worker for bringing fresh ideas into the workplace, saying their input has been hugely valuable to Atlassian’s success.

“People can be your greatest asset if you hire smart people and treat them likes adults … (young workers) expect to be able to do that. We don’t hire people that want to comply with a policy, we hire people who want to have an impact.”

Mr Price questioned the wisdom of some companies who dismiss new ideas based on the premise “that’s just not the way things are done around here”.

“They spend all this time hiring the right person and indoctrinating them into their existing workplace,” Mr Price said.

But by providing daily inspiration without overwhelming you, Mr Price hopes the new extension can help us ditch some of those unhelpful workplace rituals and obligations and replace them with better ones.

“A small change becomes a habit, and a habit can become something of immense value,” he said.

What annoying workplace habit do you wish you could change? Let us know in the comments below.

Originally published as Atlassian business software giant pushes out free Chrome extension to help fix bad workplace habits