Interruptions come in 3 forms: in person, by phone and by email. This post is about the in person ones. We’ll address the other two in future posts.
How often are you deep in thought, focusing on a knotty problem when someone pops in for “a quick question”? It’s often more than “quick”, but even a brief interruption can seriously break your work flow and efficiency. We’ve developed a strategy for eliminating some interruptions and greatly reducing the disruptive power of the rest.
This 6 step process will help you reclaim uninterrupted time to allow you to work in focus:
- List – who and what is interrupting you. (Who, when, why and how often.) Keep an actual log for a few weeks.
- Analyze – what is behind these interruptions, what value are they providing – to the interrupter, to others? Are they seeking or giving information? Are they taking a break? Are they asking for a decision?
- Stop – those with little value to anyone. Sometimes people don’t realize how often they interrupt you just to say hi or ask a question that can wait till later. Empower people to make their own decisions.
- Talk – with the interrupter about repeated patterns, so you can prevent them. Talk about those that are important, but the timing is bad (right in the middle of a big project). This can be difficult, but practice assertive communication strategies and tackle it! (Email me if you’d like some free, quick coaching on this.)
- Delegate – those that you can (consider this last – don’t delegate interruptions that could be prevented). Are there others who could answer questions or do some of the things people ask of you?
- Organize – those that can’t be prevented or delegated to reduce disruption.
The steps above spell “Last Do“– you want to implement the organizational strategy (dealing with the interruptions) only after you have tried all the other steps to eliminate them. We call it our A.B.C. Organizational Strategy:
Availability
Be available often enough so people don’t need to interrupt you whenever they see an opening. If your door is always shut, people will pounce each time you open it. If there are times each day when you’re available, they won’t feel so desperate about getting your attention.
Just as important, be unavailable often enough to get some uninterrupted work done. If your door is “always open” then you never get time for deep focus. The key is to limit the number of these interruptions and then schedule them for your low energy time. (See our Winter 2015 newsletter for more about energy cycles.)
Batch – similar interruptions together. Ask people who interrupt you several times per day to hold their questions or announcements and bring them all to you once a day (or even several times a week if they’re not time critical). You might want to schedule a specific time for this, to manage the “availability” issue. (One of your low energy times.)
You do the same… if you’re constantly getting up and asking people questions, you’re interrupting both yourself and them. Instead, start a file where you jot down questions, or information you want to share that can wait an hour or two. Once you have a good list, or once something urgent comes up, then go and interrupt the other person with a batch of questions/information. At the same time, ask them what they have on their list for you and you’ve just compressed 5-10 interruptions into one session.
If people are nervous about waiting, ask them to email you the information, which you’ll review at a convenient time for yourself.
Commit – This is the “C” in our ABC strategy, and it’s a crucial component. You have to come up with a plan that works and then stick to it. Continually remind people about your schedule (concentration and interruption times) and promote batching (both yourself and your interrupters).
This can be difficult, but unless you’re firm (but always polite) people won’t stop interrupting you. Interruptions are very convenient for the interruptor. It’s the interruptee who has to do the hard work of changing this habit!
Will this work for you? Send me your thoughts/concerns. Alan@KriegerSolutions.com