STOP ALL the Interruptions!!

We often get inter­rupts at work.  And times they can be very counter-productive when we put aside our cur­rent tasks to address the inter­rupts.  Part of our time spent on inter­rupts hurts our per­sonal pro­duc­tiv­ity.    Many inter­rupts are avoid­able with advance plan­ning.  The bet­ter you plan ahead, the fewer the “crises” will arise.  Think, are all inter­rupts urgent?  Some­times, sit­u­a­tions can be han­dled at a later and some­times it gets “resolved” by its own.…  How do we get our­selves to han­dle inter­rupts effectively?

Let’s iden­tify the types of inter­rupt that can hap­pen in the office.   Peo­ple can inter­rupt you and break your train of thought.   Peo­ple drop­ping in or call­ing to strike a con­ver­sa­tion.  Calls or emails that dis­tract you from the task at hand.  Out­side noise or com­mo­tion that keeps you from focus­ing.   That’s exter­nal, you’ll be sur­prised that there are inter­rupts from within too.   Times when you inter­rupt your­self.  Remem­ber­ing some­thing you were sup­posed to do.  Being dis­tracted by piles of paper or dis­or­ga­ni­za­tion.  Spend­ing time on unim­por­tant non-priority tasks.   Let­ting your mind wan­der away from the focus of your work… procrastination…

Start by keep­ing a track of the inter­rupts that occurred in the day.  Use an inter­rup­tion log.  Record times when your con­cen­tra­tion is bro­ken.  What­ever that caused it, note the time, rea­son, per­son inter­rupt­ing, and how long it lasted.  You will dis­cover that there are pat­terns to your inter­rup­tions.  With this, you will rec­og­nize the cause to pre­vent interruptions.

Fur­ther­more, you need to change your mind­set in han­dling inter­rupts.  Remem­ber, very few inter­rup­tions are both urgent and impor­tant.  Get out of the habit of deal­ing with items the minute they come in.  It’s more pro­duc­tive to sched­ule the item into your day later.  Stay focused on the task at hand until you com­plete it the rest of the work will still be there when you finish

Now, it is impor­tant to setup rules for deal­ing with inter­rupts. Like, who you are ready to break work for and who must wait. Face up to greet folk so you con­trol the con­ver­sa­tion.   Don’t be scared to ask how long the inter­rup­tion will take then judge whether you have the time to han­dle it now or later.   Ask if you want to be the one to deal with the inter­rup­tion. If some­one else can help, del­e­gate the job ask if you need to han­dle the prob­lem right at that exact moment.  If not, sched­ule a time to take care of it later when inter­rupted.  Leave a mem­ory log­ger of where you left off work.   It is going to be sim­pler to get into the groove when you come back.

Lastly, let co-workers know the times when you’re not avail­able. Turn your desk away from the door so you do not catch folk’s eyes. Tell co-workers “no” when they ask if they can have some min­utes. In return, estab­lish “open door” hours for drop-in’s and ques­tions. Invest the time up front to totally explain del­e­gated projects.  Be clear and con­cise in your del­e­ga­tion.  This will avoid “clar­i­fi­ca­tion” ques­tions in future.

With all these, inter­rupts will be put to a stop (at least to the min­i­mum) and you find your­self get­ting pro­duc­tiv­ity back on track.

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