Nothing can ruin the flow of your day and inhibit your productivity
quite like unexpected interruptions. The phone, the kids, that little IM alarm, an unexpected visit. I’m sure we can
all recall days when it seemed we got nothing done due to constant interruptions. At one point, not too long ago, my professional
life had reach its height of complexity, and interruptions were reaching epidemic levels. I was losing precious hours every
week and my anxiety level was going through the roof, so I began to seek a cure for chronic interruption syndrome. I needed
a system. It wasn’t to hard to establish a few simple guidelines and put interruptions in their place, once and for
all. Here’s what I came up with:
1. Turn off that email or IM alarm. Try to look at your email at
most three times a day. Maybe during that first cup of coffee, and again around lunchtime, maybe a third time before you wrap
up your day. We’re getting a little crazy about checking email every five minutes, and in all likelihood, there will
be at least one new email, probably spam, to grab your attention.
2. Let your voice mail or answering machine handle calls during
certain hours of the day. For example, between 1pm and 4pm, I like to get most of the days nitty gritty work done, so I do
not pick up the phone. Period.
3. Learn to politely say no. If you have an unexpected visitor,
let them know that you are in the middle of a time sensitive project and can’t give them the attention that they deserve.
Offer a better (i.e. scheduled and expected) time to meet when you can give them more quality attention.
4. Get yourself on the national do not call list. Enough said.
5. Start training your kids at an early age to respect certain
times. For example, when Mommy is on the phone, you have to wait until she is done. Of course this is tough, and may be impossible
with younger kids. But I remember in my childhood, when Daddy was doing bills, whatever that meant, he would sit at his desk
with the door partially closed, and I just simply would not interrupt unless the house was on fire.
6. If you have the benefit of employees or helpers of any kind,
let them handle it. Empower your assistants to completely handle certain tasks or decisions without having to consult you
at all. Additionally, have them take messages and relay those messages to you only at certain times of the day, or leave them
on a bulletin board for you to check at your leisure. This sure beats having them call you each time someone calls for you
just to tell you that someone called for you. This kind of defeats the purpose of having an assistant, but unless told otherwise,
it is precisely what many assistants will do because they assume that all calls are important.
7. If you’re on your own, make sure you have caller ID. 90%
of calls that appear with an 800 number, a state identifier, or an out of area id are telemarketers. Much of this will be
taken care of if you paid attention to step 4.
8. When you’re getting ready to do a project, whether its
business, arts and crafts or cooking dinner, assemble all your materials ahead of time so you don’t have to run out
to Staples for a pencil sharpener.
9. Learn to limit your time on the phone. If someone is chatty
or not coming to the point, you need to be prepared with a simple phrase like this: “I’m kind of in the middle
of something, but I’d be happy to help you if you tell me exactly what you need.” Just a polite way of saying
get to the point.
10. Automate as much as possible. Setting up automatic payment plans
for your bills is a great time saver and avoids the temptation (or perceived necessity) of interrupting something to read
your mail or pay a few bills. In addition, if you keep your bills paid and on time, you won’t be getting any of those
inconvenient calls from your creditors.
11. Last but not least, don’t create your own interruptions.
We mistakenly equate busyness with effectiveness, so we’re always bouncing around to different tasks to make sure we’re
busy for eight hours a day. Just because a project does not have a frantic pace does not mean it is not worthwhile. So if
you’re simply doing some leisurely background reading on a subject, or working quietly on a problem, resist the impulse
to check your email, check in on a favorite blog or discussion group, or have a look at your bank balance.
Of course, everyone’s life is different, and it is likely
that not all of these guidelines will work for you. Certainly if you have a job that uses IM as an integral part of office
communications, then Tip #1 may not apply. Young children make many of these ideas challenging to integrate into daily life.
When junior needs to be fed, you can count on being interrupted, although training and adherence to a schedule from infancy
can help to minimize the effects over the longer term . Still, if you utilize only a few of these suggestions, you may find
they add up to a few extra hours at the end of the week. More importantly, having mechanisms in place to deal with interruptions
brings the anxiety level down a notch or two, and we all can benefit from that.
Simplify and be happy!
