INTERRUPTIONS are a part of our daily routine.

Whether they take the form of an impromptu meeting, a client-service problem, a last-minute proposal, personal demands, e-mail, or conversations with your staff, these unplanned engagements or activities have a tendency to rob us of our planned productive time throughout our day.

Interruptions really happen when there is a conflict of priorities between ourselves and our set goals. There are two types of responses when this conflict arises — you either become the receptionist or the fireman.

The receptionist

The phone rings, you pick it up. Someone walks into your office, you stop what you are doing and take care of them. Another call comes in, you say to the person on the other end of the line to hold, you try to offer feedback to the person standing before you and before you know it, you hang up, forgetting that you had someone on the other end of the line. If this represents you, then you are responding like a receptionist.

Although you are being helpful, you have limited ability to produce high-level results because there is a conflict between what your goals are for the day and what is competing for your attention. Constant interruptions reduce your ability to think clearly.

The fireman

You might be the manager who becomes the fireman at the office. The fireman is a hero. He waits for the bell to ring, rushes to the scene and puts out the fire. A call here and a call there, and he hears phrases like, “it is urgent”, “come quickly”, “there is a crisis”, “something has happened”. Like the good boss, he drops what he is doing and rushes to the scene only to find out that there was an alarm but no fire.

While putting out fires is important, on its own it will not generate productivity and success in your business. Constant emergency leaves you unable to execute your day successfully and act purposefully.

“Peter” is the manager of a company in Jamaica and he shares his frustration about not being able to get things done due to the constant barrage of interruptions from both customers and his staff. Not wanting to be rude or send the wrong message to his staff that he doesn’t care, he allowed his employees to interrupt him with their questions, problems, and requests for help during the course of the day.

Whether it was via e-mail, the phone, or face-to-face in his office, “Peter” had a tendency to drop what he was doing (fireman) in fear of any fallout or backlash if he did not address their needs immediately.

How can “Peter” be coached to manage the interruptions and the expectations people have of him? He must be given the six-step interruption survival kit to enable him to take control of his day.

The six steps

1. Answer these questions honestly.

How many hours per day do you spend dealing with interruptions? What are the main sources of interruption and distractions? What percentage of your unplanned activities could be scheduled? What is the cost of constant interruptions on your focus, peace of mind, life balance, and professionalism?

2. Schedule everything.

Don’t just schedule appointments, map all of your main activities into your schedule. The more you schedule yourself, the more you have to negotiate with and push back.

3. Leave gaps in your schedule.

Scheduling your day with back-to-back activities is the perfect way to sabotage yourself. Always leave open buffer times between events.

4. Close your door.

Set up open- and close-door times with your co-workers or staff, even if you don’t have a door.

5. Stop interrupting yourself.

Notice your personal interruption patterns — breaks, checking e-mails and chit-chat.

6. Develop interruption agreements.

For example, set aside quiet time for the first three hours of the day. Ask your co-workers or staff, ‘Instead of handling this right now, can we set up a recurring time to go through all the details?’ or ‘Can we define what constitutes an emergency? If it isn’t an emergency, can we deal with this in our next scheduled meeting or during our open-door time?’

The June 2004 issue of Inc Magazine reported on the findings of Harvard University researcher Leslie Perlow, who did a year-long survey on a team of software engineers at a high-tech firm.

Perlow found that engineers were frequently interrupted and seldom had more than an hour each day to concentrate on any one task. As you can imagine, this is not nearly enough time to do productive work for something as complex as writing software.

Perlow introduced “quiet time” where no one was allowed to interrupt anyone else from the start of the workday until noon. The engineers reported a 65 per cent improvement in productivity.

Don’t allow interruption to manage you; it is time for you to manage your interruptions. By using the interruptions survival kit, you will take control of your day and see your productivity level rise.

Henry Lewis is an executive coach and CEO of Caribbean Coaching Center. He can be contacted at info@caribbeancoachingcenter.com.