Little interruptions steal lots of time
By Amy Joyce
Washington Post
WASHINGTON — You know the scenario: You have a list of things you must get done today. You get to work early for some quiet time, hunker down with a cup of coffee. Turn the computer on, get ready to type your first words of the day, and there it goes: the phone, more e-mails than you expected and that co-worker who taps on the door with "just one little thing."
We live in a life of interruptions, including those we bring on ourselves, such as a call home to make sure everything is OK. Those interruptions make what could be accomplished in two weeks drag on for three. Or turn what could be finished by day's end bleed over into the next day.
There are things some people do to handle these parentheses in their workdays.
Vivian Schatz, an analyst with the Canadian International Development Agency, said she starts her day with a list of things that need to get done. But that can get derailed early.
So when she needs to draft a long document, she sets her e-mail and her voice mail to the "out of office" message, closes her door and really gets to work.
Gabrielle Josephson, who works for a government contractor in Sterling, Va., took her boss up on his offer to let employees work Christmas Eve and save that holiday for another time. "I can catch up on plenty of paperwork and things that require more than 15 minutes of conversation," she said. That's because she could be practically alone in a usually busy office.
Today's environment is much more interruption-prone than before. Thanks to BlackBerrys, e-mail, instant messaging and cell phones, people are trying to reach us at all times. We're swamped.
"We're wasting time on time-saving devices," said Todd Duncan, author of the book "Time Traps," who believes we all have just 3 1/2 minutes to focus on any one thing without interruption.
Interruptions are so common in Krista Grimmett's life that they actually make her daily duty list. Grimmett, a human resources specialist with the Department of the Army, plans interrup-
tions into her daily schedule, turning them into must-dos rather than items that will throw her day off schedule.
Her job dictates that she answer the phone and take care of "walkup" questions from employees every day. She spends her day advising management on human-resource issues; she helps people fill out dreaded forms. She's one of several "everything" women. So sitting down to accomplish one thing is never an option.
When she schedules her day, she plans for an hour and a half of interruptions. That way, she said, those walkups and other breaks in her day do not really take away from her meetings or immediate tasks.
Grimmett regulates everything. She and her colleagues ask if they can get back to just about every person who asks a question. She sets a deadline and tells the employees when she will get back to them.
Peter Handal, chief executive of Dale Carnegie Training, advises people to "take charge" and manage their own lives when it comes to daily interruptions. And he often has to heed his own advice.
Before a recent convention at which he had to give two speeches, Handal knew he would not get any work done at the office. (He has one of those "open door" policies.)
So he blocked out half a day and sneaked off to an empty classroom at corporate headquarters. He closed the door so no one could see him. And he had no access to e-mail or the phone. He wrote the speeches and was able to slip right back .
"I think at all levels of a company, people can manage to set aside two hours and say, 'These two hours, I'm working on this project,' " he said.
"Workplace interruptions are inevitable."
