The Brickyard

It’s 4:30 on Friday…not quite time to go home but too late to start on anything new. I can’t convince anybody to go sit outside and enjoy a beer so I’m stuck here with lots to do but no motivation to do it.

I’ve gotten a lot of questions lately (okay, two) about what really happens at The Brickyard. Is it possible for 5 companies to share one space and actually get anything done? Surprisingly, yes.

Just to prove that we do actually work, here is a brief overview of a typical day at The Brickyard:

8:00 - 8:15: Andrew and/or Ross arrives early, recently via pedal power. Bike(s) locked up and computer(s) powered on. Up to 84 different light switches activated, depending on the ambient light conditions. General chit chat commences.

8:30: Previous day’s coffee mugs cleaned. First pot o’ Roos Roast coffee brewed in Derek’s 3-minute coffee pot.

8:33: Coffee leaks over top of the filter and puddles on the floor, windowsill and under the fridge.

8:45ish: Brian and Derek make their grand arrivals, general chit-chat resumes. Topics include American Idol, coffee, or coffee filters.

8:45 - 9:30: Emails answered, phone calls returned. Work logged and clients satisfied.

9:30: Dan and/or Declan roll in, general chit chat resumes. Topics include kids, weekend activities/plans, and the damn neighbor kids that keep walking through Declan’s garden.

9:45 - 11:00: More work completed. Problems solved, solutions created, plans drawn up, strategies devised.

11:00: Second pot of Roos Roast coffee brewed and consumed.

11:03: Coffee leaks over top of the filter and puddles on the floor, windowsill and under the fridge.

11:05 - 11:45: Workage. Tactics implemented, conference calls attended, and progress made.

11:46: Andrew starts talking about lunch. If it’s a group lunch day, I pace nervously until enough people join to go eat. “Social media research” conducted. Scrabulous played. If I brought my lunch I start nibbling because I don’t want to arbitrarily wait until noon.

12:00 - 1:00: Various lunch engagements. Some work, some food, some socializing. Sometimes meetings, sometimes lunchtime walks to the post office, library, or other random destinations in between. Wednesdays are LA2M days. Thursdays are A2B3 days.

1:00 - 2:30: Products produced and services rendered. Between the six of us, we build websites, architect information, optimize for search engines, brand and market companies, and build web apps with open source tools.

2:30: Third pot o’ Roos Roast coffee brewed and consumed. I think we are personally paying John Roos’ mortgage, but it’s all in the name of delicious, fair trade coffee.

2:33: Coffee leaks over top of the filter and puddles on the floor, windowsill and under the fridge.

2:35 - 3:00: Usually some sort of break. Could include another walk to the candy/lotto distributor.

3:00 - 4:30: More things checked off the collective to-do lists. Phones answered, proposals drafted, leads answered, and positive results created.

4:30: Somebody gets bored and thirsty and tries to persuade the others to go get a beer. Instead of doing real work, that somebody decides to kill time because it’s not quite time to go home but too late to start on anything new. Blog post produced.

5:30: Others finally get the hint.