Interruptions

How many times a day do you get interrupted? 10, 20? Well, our research with both School Leaders and Partners within a professional firm shows that, on average, they are interrupted more than 50 times a day! On a 8 hour day, that’s an interruption every 9 minutes. And sometimes we wonder why we get to the end of the day and we haven’t done any of the work we had planned to do. Then what happens? We take work home with us, because we feel like the only solution is to catch up on work in personal time, leading to increased out of work hours and a lack of boundary strength, which in turn promotes poor work family balance.

Interruptions are inevitable in today’s world. Phones, computers, emails, smart watches…. All of these are great, but they also make it harder for us not to get interrupted or distracted. We are now available to the world 24/7 and even though we have the choice to ignore it, we all know how hard it is to hear that ping on our phones or emails and not look at it straight away.

But why are interruptions so bad? Our research shows that not only do they wreck concentration, affect accuracy and efficiency, it also means that complex tasks requiring cognition and focus, such as planning and writing, just cannot be performed in a normal working day. Also, the cognitive load from moving between widely different tasks and being interrupted so often is incredibly draining.

So, in order to, not only stay on track with your work, but keep your sanity, being able to manage and control your external world is key.

Here are some tips that you can use in order to reduce interruptions:

1 - Close email. Most people keep their emails open all day, which means that every time an email comes in they get interrupted and all of the sudden they loose focus on the task they were performing. So, make sure you don't have your email constantly open. Instead allocate some time in your day to dedicate to your email. For example, for an hour in the morning as soon as you walk in and for another hour after lunch time.

2 - Move your phone away while working. We all know how much of a distraction phones can be. So, either turn your phone off, or move it away, whenever you need to focus on a task.

3 -Close any pop ups that will interrupt you.

4 - Work from home. Even if it's only once a week, working from home will allow you to focus on big, difficult tasks that require your attention and focus, without being interrupted as often.

5 - Wear headphones. This is something my staff and I do in our office. Whenever someone is wearing their headphones, we all know that that person needs to focus on a task and they cannot be interrupted.

6 - Communicate to people when you are trying to complete a task and ask them not to interrupt you. If you don't tell the people you work with you need some time without interruptions, they won't know. No one is a mind reader, so make sure you communicate this to those around you.

7 - Close your door (if you have one).

8 - Create a team culture where everyone is more mindful and respectful of how much you interrupt each other and then work together on solutions to reduce the number of interruptions.

Would you like to know how many times a day you get interrupted? See below our ATTENTION SPAN DIAGNOSTIC, as well as a form that will allow you to count how many times a day you get interrupted and find out. 

Feel free to share your results with us, by uploading the diagnostic/form HERE.