Break; pause; disruption; intermission; interlude; disturbance; intrusion; stoppage; interval. No matter what you call it, it’s an interruption. We all are interrupted throughout the course of our workday, by people and by things that may not necessarily always be in our control. No matter what the interruption is or how many of them we encounter during our day, the truth of the matter is that if you want to have a very productive day, you have to get a handle on managing those interruptions. Get ahead of the game and start by preventing interruptions before they occur.
When you control interruptions and eliminate distractions in your day, you have more time to work on the things that matter. Look at the things that keep interrupting your day or keep you from working on what matters most. What are the things that interrupt you the most and why? What’s interrupting you right now? What can you do to put a stop to that distraction?
If you can’t answer this question right away, keep track over the period of one week of what is interrupting you and the reason for each interruption. Also make a note of how much time you spend on each distraction. At the end of the week, add up the accumulated time spent on the distractions. As you review your list, ask yourself what you can do to stop the various distractions.
One common interruption is the telephone. It may not always be possible to not take phone calls or answer the phone, but there are times that it’s possible to have someone take messages, let the calls go to voice mail or place the phone on do not disturb and return calls later in the day. This is especially helpful when you’re working on one of your top priority items. You can keep working and know that you can still address the needs of those on the other end of the phone, just not right at that time.
Check my next post for more tips on handing interruptions!