Do you really know the cost?
By Michael Caron, President, Northbound Sales Training
Interruptions are one of the biggest time suckers for most. Did you know that if you are focussing in the middle of a task that it takes 6 minutes to get back to the same level of focus as before the interruption? If you get interrupted just 5 times in an hour, you’re only working at 50% productivity!
You might think with the work-from-home trend, “I’m at home so I don’t have to worry about interruptions like I did when I was in the office all the time.” WRONG! While interruptions are less likely to be from someone stopping by your desk on the way to the water cooler, interruptions abound today mostly by our own doing — our devices!
Our cell phones, our computers and even our watches are set up to over-notify us of everything from a new social post to “time to stand”. (I know I’ve got about another 10 minutes before my Apple Watch annoys me to do that.) If another human notified us in person as often as our devices, we’d likely want to duct tape them to the wall within a couple of hours! Without constant interruptions from your devices, think of how much more you could get done, how much greater your focus would be and how much lower your blood pressure would be.
- Make it clear when you can be interrupted. In an office environment, put a sign on your door asking people to only interrupt you if it’s urgent or if you’re in an open work environment use an orange pylon to indicate it.
- If you work in an office setting or in your home with other people around, turn your desk to the wall. People will be less likely to start chatting if they don’t make eye contact.
- When someone physically interrupts you, standup! People tend to get to the point quicker if they’re standing. Once they sit down, you know you’re in for a long chat!
- Get in the habit of asking people how urgent something is. Ask to get back to them if it’s important but not super urgent (but make sure you do or you’ll lose credibility).
- Ask people who you deal with often, to make a list of items to cover and set a quick meeting (or regular meeting) to cover off most things at one time.
- When you are on “focus time” turn off all gadgets or leave them in your bag. It sounds productive to multi-task but it is far less productive actually. Focus on one thing at one time!