Dr. Judi Craig, MCC
Executive Coach
Dr. Judi Craig, MCC Executive Coach |
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Handling
Interruptions (SA Woman, 2003) Finding
yourself staying late at the office or taking work home with you?
Noticing that if you get to work before anyone else arrives, you get so
much more done? That
culprit sabotaging your time management could be the way you handle—or don’t
handle—those pesky interruptions! Now if
you are a manager you probably place value on being “available” to your
employees. You want them to feel
that they can come to you with problems, that you’re not going to shut them
out. You
espouse the “open door” policy. And
that attitude is terrific! But you
can remain “available” and still have some time to think, to do those
activities that require concentration. And
that means No, you
won’t stay barricaded behind a closed door all—or even most—of the day.
But you’ll need to let your employees know that there are times when
the door will be closed because you are needing to work on something with full
concentration. The next
step is to tell your employees what to do when your door is closed.
Do you have an assistant with whom they can leave a message?
Is there a place to leave a written message?
If not, you can get one of those plastic holders doctors use outside
their examining rooms for patient files and tape it beside your door. Problem
is, if people are used to interrupting you, they are likely to continue even
when your door is closed. So
you’ll have to educate them. “ Why ask
for her support? Because you want
her verbal agreement; people are more likely to follow through on an action if
they’ve made a verbal commitment to do so.
Also, What if
your office doesn’t have a door? If
you work in a cubicle, arrange it so that you will face a wall when you are
working rather than looking at the open space.
People are much more likely to begin a conversation with you (and you
with them) if you are seated where there is natural eye contact. What
about energy vampires—those people who always have to talk to you at length in
the halls, at the water cooler, in the restroom?
The ones who drop by your office too frequently and stay too long?
The folks who take up your time out of neediness, insecurity or just
because they love to socialize? It helps
to put a time limit on your interaction with such a person.
“Sue, I have just three minutes; how can I help?”
But that’s only half the strategy—the other half is to follow through
with what you’ve stated. This may
mean setting an appointment to talk further.
Or if the person is in your office, standing up and saying “Sorry, I
really need to stop now.” By the
way, you don’t have to give the other person a reason you need to stop.
You might feel it’s okay to end a conversation if you have a meeting to
go to or have to leave the office for an appointment, but it is just as okay
(and necessary) to stop a conversation because you want to control your time. People, of course, are not the only source of interruptions. What about that phone? While
there are a few businesses in which it is absolutely essential that people
answer their own How
about email? Don’t allow yourself
to be interrupted by responding instantly to the “you have mail” signal from
your computer. Again, batch your
email reading into a few convenient times during the day.
It’s a tool to serve you, not a taskmaster to enslave you. The
point is that making yourself as interruption-free as possible sets a boundary
that protects you from being continually at someone else’s beck and
call. The benefit: control over
your time—not to mention your sanity! Judi
Craig, Ph.D., MCC
is an Executive & Career Coach in San Antonio, President of Coach Squared,
Inc. and author of the ebook HELP! I
LOST MY JOB! Visit www.coachsquared.com
or www.lost-my-job.com. |
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