Build in “Planned Interruptions” to Work with More Ease

In the course of a typical workday, each person gets interrupted about every three minutes (with an average of twenty times per hour). This equates to 160 to 200 interruptions per day. Yikes! Is it any wonder, then, that people often leave work feeling like they’ve accomplished nothing? In some cases, that’s exactly what happens, as the day is filled with interruptions and little focused time.

Interruptions pull you out of your current focus (i.e., email, report, project, or workflow) and into someone else’s world. This pull sometimes comes in the form of a friendly request such as “Can I have just a few minutes of your time,” or perhaps a hasty demand such as “I need your help with something.” Either way, generally unproductive work behavior actually creates inefficiency for both parties.

Research from Dr. Gloria Mark of the Donald Bren School of Information and Computer Sciences at the University of California in Irvine indicates that it takes anywhere between six and twenty minutes to recover and refocus after you are interrupted. So, not only are you using up time during the actual interruption, you are also expending additional time to get back on track with the work you were doing prior to being interrupted. The brain requires cycle time to process the data needed to handle the interruption, track back to the original task, remember what the original goal was, then move towards completion of that task. While you might find yourself saying, “Oh no, I’m actually great at handling interruptions and multi-tasking … it doesn’t really bother me,” chances are you find yourself exhausted at the end of the day from the mental exhaustion of interruption-driven environments.

Rather than feeling you are at the mercy of continual interruptions, you may want to consider restructuring your time at work to maximize your productivity and sense of ease. You can begin that process my identifying times for planned interruptions in which all of the small interruptions that would normally happen throughout the day are fit into buckets of time. By structuring this time into two or three spots during the day, you begin to create more focus, structure, and management of your time. This not only protects your max productivity time but also encourages others to better manage themselves throughout the day. The simple act of declaring your desire to reduce interruptions works magic—you get more disciplined at work, others group their questions prior to approaching you, and, most importantly, you save time and energy at work.