We live in an interruption-loaded society, meeting planners, perhaps doubly so. The ability to sneak off, to find quiet or to rest is challenging in the age of mobile devices. What’s more, the noise level of society in general has been increasing steadily for decades.
Try to read a magazine on your front porch on a Sunday morning, and invariably one or more of your neighbors will be toting an ear shattering leaf blower, rounding up every leaf in sight. At work, our bosses, peers and associates have no qualms about dropping by, calling, paging, emailing, text messaging or instant messaging all day long.
While each of us craves the ability to work uninterrupted on occasion, especially on highly critical, challenging or first-time types of tasks, we forget, that we interrupt others with the same abandon that they interrupt us. Worse, even when we have the ability to control our exposure to the next voicemail, email or text message, we crave to know who has gotten in touch with us lately and too often succumb to clicking and tapping away to see who our latest correspondent may be.
The Rising Tide
The research regarding interruptions in the workplace today paints a grim picture. Unmistakably, interruptions are on the rise. Basex, a U.S. technology research firm, completed a survey years back that reveals interruptions account for 28 percemt of the typical career professionals’ workday.
Worse, on average, employees typically get only 11 minutes to focus on any task before encountering another interruption. Thereafter, another 25 minutes on average are consumed before returning to the original task or project, if it happens at all on that day. Other studies show that interruptions typically occur between every three and eight minutes and, that once a worker is interrupted, there is an almost 25 percent chance that resuming on the original task won’t occur until the following day.
It’s time to declare your independence. No one controls your schedule exactly like you do, not even an authoritarian boss. Most of the interruptions that plague you in the course of a day are in part, your own doing.
Allow or Do Not Allow
At some level, you allow most interruptions to happen–either because you think you have to be available 24/7, or you fear missing the one phone call or email message that will make or break your quarter or career. You fall into the trap of being too available, of checking messages too frequently. In the process, you sacrifice the ability to accomplish great things when you’re able to focus intently on the task at hand.
Here then are some suggestions for taking charge of your personal environment, so that you can be your most productive self in those situations where concentration, intensity and focus are essential:
- Surround yourself with everything you need to fully engage in the process, which also might involve assembling resources, people and space, as well as ensuring that you have a quiet environment free of distractions.
- Give yourself the hours or days you need to read, study and absorb what’s occurring, and to make decisions about how you’ll apply new ways of doing things and new technology to your career, business or organization.
- Go “cold turkey.” This is not recommended for most people! But sometimes you just have to suspend whatever else is going on to incorporate a new way of doing things. Bringing in outside experts if you need help with this one.
Jeff Davidson is “The Work-Life Balance Expert®” and the premier thought leader on work-life balance issues. He works with organizations that want to enhance their productivity by improving the work-life balance of their people. Jeff is the author of 65 books, including Breathing Space, Dial it Down, Live it Up, Simpler Living, 60 Second Innovator and 60 Second Organizer.
