3 Positive Strategies to Deal with Interruptions
Oct 15, 2023
Interruptions intrude every single day at work.
At least they do for me. What about you?
They’re uninvited, unexpected, and un
Research indicates that it takes you anywhere from 10-20 minutes to re-engage fully with the task you abandoned when interrupted.
If you encounter 3 interruptions daily at work, that’s about one hour lost.
So when was the last time you had just 3 interruptions?
More like 103, right? And that’s just in the morning!
How well do you deal with these interruptions?
Implement these three strategies for positively dealing with interruptions in your work flow and watch as your work culture connects people, productivity and profits better:
Listen
There is a line in the movie Pulp Fiction that goes something like this: “Are you really listening or just waiting to talk?”
As we really listen to each other, our eyes contact, our intellect and emotions connect, and we give full attention to the communication experience. An interruption-resistant bubble forms around us…if we’re really listening.
The common courtesy of listening isn’t so common these days with mobile technology’s nagging demands. A beep, ding, or favorite song snippet intrudes with alarming regularity.
The path to extreme productivity lies in really listening to people and projects. When you listen, you focus intently and deflect interruptions.
Locate
Interruptions happen regardless of how well you listen. A client calls. A customer walks in. A team member has a question.
Locate your interruptions strategically. Establish appointments with yourself to return voice mail calls and emails. Create team meeting experiences and push others to jot down questions and bring them to that time.
When you must put out a fire, locate your place in the project or the conversation. Think of it as a bookmark, or dog-earing a page. Jot a note. This simple act reduces your search time in getting back into the flow.
Leverage
Sometimes an interruption is fortuitous. It intrudes with new information that is directly applicable to a person or project. Leverage it in that moment with gratitude.
Or, the interruption brings knowledge relevant to another task on your to-do list. Locate it for easy reference later. Make a quick note for later leverage and return to the person or project at hand. You keep your current listening engaged, locate it quickly when you’re ready, and leverage the interruption, transforming it from pain to profit.
Interruptions intrude multiple times daily on all of us.
As you listen, locate, and leverage them, you implement your positive work culture in ways that connect people, productivity and profits.
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