Resisting the Culture of Interruption
10/01/08
7
Ideas Coach Audio Podcast
Ever had one of those days when all you did was answer the phone and respond to email? Does it seem like most of your days are spent this way?
The combination of information overload, lean staffing, multi-modal communication, and expectations for instant response are creating an epidemic of frazzled workers. Days are filled with frantic activity that doesn’t allow time to think, reflect, converse, plan, or learn. In time management parlance, we are letting the ‘urgent’ drive out the ‘important.’
My colleague, George Smart, refers to this as the Culture of Interruption – being so bombarded by emails, telephone calls, and “urgent” matters, that we lose sight of the big picture.
In a time where increasingly the value we add comes from brainpower, thinking, and knowledge work, the culture of interruption reduces the value we can add to our businesses and organizations.
We cannot stop the culture of interruption, and we best not ignore it - rather we must persistently resist it. Small improvements do add up. You can’t change your world overnight, but if you continue to make small improvements, they can add up over time to produce big leaps in productivity (and sanity).
7 Tips for Resisting the Culture of Interruption
Ever had one of those days when all you did was answer the phone and respond to email? Does it seem like most of your days are spent this way?
The combination of information overload, lean staffing, multi-modal communication, and expectations for instant response are creating an epidemic of frazzled workers. Days are filled with frantic activity that doesn’t allow time to think, reflect, converse, plan, or learn. In time management parlance, we are letting the ‘urgent’ drive out the ‘important.’
My colleague, George Smart, refers to this as the Culture of Interruption – being so bombarded by emails, telephone calls, and “urgent” matters, that we lose sight of the big picture.
In a time where increasingly the value we add comes from brainpower, thinking, and knowledge work, the culture of interruption reduces the value we can add to our businesses and organizations.
We cannot stop the culture of interruption, and we best not ignore it - rather we must persistently resist it. Small improvements do add up. You can’t change your world overnight, but if you continue to make small improvements, they can add up over time to produce big leaps in productivity (and sanity).
7 Tips for Resisting the Culture of Interruption
- Self-check your own attitude and thinking. Your company culture may imply that time spent reflecting or planning is not time spent “working”. Are you also self-imposing this belief?
- Don’t wear your busyness as a badge of honor. When someone asks what you’ve been up to, rise above and respond in terms of goals and achievements. “I’ve been working on... “I’m proud of...” “Let me tell you about...”
- Replace a habit with a habit. Intentionally work on one idea for reducing distractions in one area. Repeat until the habit is well established before focusing on another idea.
- Commit to getting it right the first time. Live by the old adage, “If you have time to do it over, you have time to do it right.”
- Make meetings matter. Effective meetings aren’t just vehicles for reporting information, rather they are opportunities for people to have real conversations, to form alignment, to collectively attune to what people care about, and to take action.
- Communicate your preferred form of communication. Let people know how to best connect with you (phone, email, fax, person-to-person, instant messaging). Find out the preferred mode for your important contacts.
- Switching gears is tough. Become aware of which transitions drag on your productivity, anticipate the tension, and mentally prepare to handle those scenarios more smoothly.
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