Interruptions can derail things quickly. It doesn’t matter what the level of task is – interruptions cause us to stop what we are doing and focus on something else. Getting back to what I was doing before is always problematic. So I have developed some strategies to handle interruptions without losing my day.
Why Interruptions Feel So Disruptive
Why are interruptions so disruptive? They pull you off of what you are doing and set you on a new path.
When I am doing work that requires heavy concentration, an interruption, even a small one, can completely break my concentration. When I am free to get back to my task, I have to work to get back to the level of concentration I was at before the distration.
This break in concentration creates mental friction. Part of my mind is still on the original task. And part of it has been pulled away. Those two different perspectives are competing for my brain energy.
This often leads to frustration. I can feel my thoughts and concentration on the original task slipping away. I know from long experience that it will take time and effort to get back to what I am doing. It is doubly frustrating if I am being interrupted for a trivial reason.
Once my concentration is broken, it will take time to get back to where I was. This is the same reason why multitasking doesn’t work. Your brain needs time to switch.
How I Reset After Being Interrupted
There are two phases of being interrupted that allow me to reset quickly.
As soon as the interruption occurs, I determine if I am interruptible. If I am deep in something, I will tell the person that I can’t talk right at the moment, but will be able to at a specific time. Most interruptions can wait.
If the interruption is urgent, or if I am interruptible, then I write down exactly what I am doing at the moment. I try to capture the last thoughts I had as well as what I think the next step is.
After the interruption, I want to get back on track as soon as I can.
I make notes of anything that needs to be done as the result of the interruption. If I have to send an email or put something in a tracking system, I write this down with as much detail as I can. This allows me to clear the interruption out of my head.
Then I take a look at what I wrote down at the start of the interruption and pick up the task where I left off.
How I Protect the Rest of My Day
For a long time, I treated interruptions as if the time didn’t count. If I got interrupted at work for a design discussion that lasted an hour, I would return and not consider that I had just lost an hour that I had planned to work on something else. I would reach the end of the day and wonder why I hadn’t gotten everything done.
Once an interruption occurs, there are things that need to be done so that I don’t end up in this situation.
- Reprioritize if needed. If the interruption is severe enough, or there have been several, I need to look at what I need to do, and reprioritize what I am working on.
- Drop lower-value tasks. If you lost time due to an interruption, you can’t get everything you planned on doing one. The easiest way to cope with this is to drop or postpose lower-value tasks.
- Avoid trying to “make up” everything. Trying to still get everything done in less time is just an exercise in wishful thinking. I have to adjust to what is, not what was.
- Preserve energy for what still matters. Since energy is a big driver in what I do these days, I make sure I have energy for what matters. And sometimes that means skipping non-essential meetings in favor of getting other work done.
- Signal when you are not interruptible. If I decide that I can’t be interrupted because the task I am working on is too intricate, or because I have been interrupted too many times, I signal that I can’t be interrupted. I pull out my over the ear headphones and put them on. I may not actually be listening to anything, but I have found that people will not approach me if they see I have them on.
In Conclusion
Interruptions are part of modern life, but they don’t have to control my day. By pausing long enough to note where I am, clearing the interruption out of my head, and adjusting my priorities afterward, I can recover faster and stay focused on what matters most. I may not avoid interruptions entirely, but I can keep them from turning into a lost day.
