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Minimizing interruptions is the key to getting more done at work. And interruptions come in a variety of forms - from people, paper, and technology.
Managing your time can feel trying to hold onto a bucking bronco. One minute you think you're holding on tight, in control, and winning...the next you're flying through the air and landing in an area covered in pooh.
Just to put this time management problem in perspective:
Organizing guru Julie Morgenstern tweeted that interruptions now cost us 2.1 hours a day or a whopping 28% of our workday!
Joel Spolsky created some interesting examples that show switching between tasks wastes 19 minutes. If you do this repeatedly, you could be wasting HOURS each day.
Emails come in at an astonishing rate, sometimes as many as 25 or 30 an hour!
The phone rings, people ask, "Can I have a minute of your time?"
And the internet has enabled us to "pull" tons of information towards us second by second.
And we wonder why we feel like we can't get a handle on our time...?
Now, how is it that some people seem to have it figured out. What's their secret, anyway?
In his book, The Big Leap, psychologist Gay Hendricks talks about "creating time." It's the ability to be so focused on your priorities that everything else gets left in the dust.
I call it "setting boundaries." This means knowing your priorities and working on them until you accomplish them - to the exclusion of everything else.
Good boundary-setting can include:
~ turning off your email program and the notifications and sounds that accompany it
~ putting your phone(s) on mute
~ closing your office door
~ limiting your access to the internet
~ setting aside certain times during the day for "one-minute meetings"
~ limiting your availability for informal chatting (i.e. around the watercooler)
Become more of a responder than a reactor. This means focusing on one thing at time and moving purposefully towards completion by minimizing interruptions during your workday. This can also include invoking Stephen Covey's "Urgent vs. Important" quadrant system. Mr. Covey explains that most things labeled "urgent" aren't really important; they just seem that way since there's a lot of energy around them. The truly "important" items consistently get pushed to the side as you and/or everyone else reacts to the urgency in front of them.
What are some tasks that look and feel urgent? Email. Phone calls. OPE (Other People's Emergencies). Unless you are in a job that requires you to be reactive 24/7 (911 operator, doctor/nurse, customer service rep, etc.) there are very few roles where you must respond immediately.
Work with your boss, supervisor, partners, and team members to spell out a policy of work that details how responsive you as a company must be for emails, phone calls, etc. If you can focus on projects for 45 minutes of each hour and spend 15 returning calls and emails, you will see a huge jump in your productivity. Minimizing these interruptions is the key to getting more done at work.
Top organizing expert Angie Mattson invites you to visit http://yourorganizedguide.com/ to claim your free copy of "One Simple Step to Finding Focus and Four Tips for Keeping It." Written specifically for business owners and their teams, she reveals the strategies she has used to get control of her time, eliminate clutter, and delegate effortlessly. Using these tips, she and her clients have found freedom - and have been able to increase their revenues, focus on business priorities, and make time for life outside of work.
And the guide is free.
Your free book is waiting for you here: http://www.yourorganizedguide.com/
