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handling interruptions
cassienyc | Aug 22 2006
one thing that has seemed to impede my progress with GTD is interruptions - phone calls, people dropping by, or even getting caught by coworkers on the way back from the bathroom, etc. some of the time i am able to simply turn off my phone or shut my office door, but other times it is unavoidable. so, for example, i'll set aside a hour for work, and then smack in the middle of that time someone will come bother me for 10-15 minutes or so, and then i'll find i only have 15 minutes left which is usually not enough time for me to finish what i need to have finished. it's maddening, and the end result is that i end up tacking on an hour or two to my work day just to be able to get my work done. anyone have any advice? how do *you* deal with interruptions? 4 Comments
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 What is your work?Submitted by SteveC on August 22, 2006 - 12:43pm.
Are the interruptions 'work' or 'not-work'? (presumably some of each) A lot of my work is interupt driven. I have to review documents (and they're always wanted 'now'). I have to give advice on how our Business Management System works. Those two I obviously have to be able to iterrupt other 'work' for. (OK -- the review requests come in by email so I don't have to do them immediately, but it's 'expected'). I've found GTD very useful in this regard. Because everything (or as much as possible) is NOT in my head, I can find it again when I need to pick up the pieces. Yes -- I'm not as effective at getting the other jobs done as I would be if there were not interuptions, but the interuptions are also 'work', so that's fine. (Of course, the hypocrite in me is one of the worst 'just-wandering-up-to-people-for-a-social-chat' types I know) Hope that helps a bit Steve » POSTED IN:
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