Are We Addicted to Interruptions?

July 18, 2010 By 6 Comments

An issue in many offices is that the real work gets done outside of the office, either early in the morning, at nights or on the weekends because team members are in meeting after meeting during regular work hours. Those meetings typically only add more to the to-do list and also soak up time that could otherwise be spent being productive working on projects.  When not in a meeting, the remainder of the day is filled with interruptions, emergencies that usually aren’t true emergencies, and just simply trying to get settled in to actually get into a flow.

Right about this point you’re probably nodding your head up and down admitting that you’re experiencing this same issue.  It’s not surprising because the modern workplace has become addicted to meetings and other forms of interruptions.

This is a consistent issue for me even though my team tries to run as lean as possible and reduce the number of meetings and miscellaneous interruptions we have. However, when I’m not traveling, a normal week will have 40-60 meetings appear on my calendar. One of the reasons for this is because we’re a fast-growing company with big ambitions and a lot of moving projects that require our attention while the other part is that we have weekly status calls with each of our clients and I lead the majority of these calls.

As more meetings and interruptions have continued to find their way into my work day, I’ve learned to block out time on my calendar that is marked “DO NOT SCHEDULE!”  This allows me to schedule blocks of time to get work done instead of only small windows of time.

With how often I travel, I’ve also learned how to be productive from anywhere and how to leverage any time available even if it is only 15 minutes.  This has lead me to become very good at getting work done with short pockets of time in between meetings and at home.  Even if I have a day without a lot of meetings, I have found that I am more productive on projects when I’m workshifting because I find that I can focus more because it’s just me, my laptop and some great music.

Just as I was thinking about this while sitting on my couch doing work on a Sunday afternoon, I came across an interview with Jason Fried,co-author of Rework (affiliate link) and Founder of 37Signals where he addresses exactly this issue. Jason describes some of the tactics that his team uses at the 37Signals office and offers some tactical advice that you could implement into your office.

Have you broken your company of their addiction to meetings and other interruptions? If so, what were the tactics you used?

If you enjoyed this post, please consider leaving a comment or subscribing to the feed to receive future articles delivered to your feed reader.

Filed Under: Business, Communications, Productivity, Videos Tagged With: , , , ,
  • http://empoprise-bi.blogspot.com/ John E. Bredehoft (Empoprises)

    As a proposal lead in a multinational company, there are times in which asynchronous communications are not sufficient to advance a proposal. In these cases, in which people from multiple departments need to get together at the same time and hammer out a solution, I have to call a meeting. Luckily, I hate meetings, and hate sitting in a room for 2 or 3 or 4 hours. When I chair a meeting, I have the luxury of setting the agenda, having people keep to the agenda, and ending the meeting when we've settled the item(s) on the agenda. In my case I can't avoid meetings, but I can make them as painless as possible.

  • martin.brg

    Hi Justin,

    we are in an open plan office (no cubes), and we made good experiences with little red “do not disturb” cards, which you can attach to the top of your computer display.
    Also, we kindly ask anyone the schedule outgoing phonecalls into blocks, and then reserve for one of our general-purpose-offices, which are sound insulated (so as not to disturb others).

    Greetz from Berlin, Germany,
    -Martin

  • http://twitter.com/JanetAronica Janet Aronica

    Good call on the “Do not schedule” time block. We have that at oneforty from 10-4 for the engineers, that's coding time for them. I'm think about making 2-4 writing/blogging time for me.

  • http://www.ricardobueno.com Ricardo Bueno

    It's easy for me to get interrupted at work. I work in web design. That means I stare at the computer a lot (sample designs, analytics, code, basecamp, emails, marketing, blah, blah, blah).

    I'm every deparmtment: design team, sales team, management team, finance team. Needless to say it's a lot to do and it's *very* easy to get distracted. Like you, I've learned to block out time. I don't take any appointments on Monday and I schedule webinars for the afternoons on other days. Monday's are when I knock out my To Do list. Also, I have a dedicated email for my clients and for clients of my membership site. I respond to those emails *first* and very quickly. This allows me to allocate my time to the things that matter. Everything else comes next.

    Then, the rest is just about finding ways to do things better and streamlining each and every process so that it functions better and clients are happy.

  • Sunglasses

    The priests grey nimbus in a niche where he dressed wholesale designer sunglasses discreetly. I will not sleep here tonight. Home also I cannot go. A voice, sweettoned and sustained dg sunglasses wholesale, called to him from the sea. Turning the curve he waved his cheap wholesale sunglasses hand. It called again. A sleek brown dior sunglass head, a seals, far out on the water, round. The boys blank face asked the blank replica wholesale sunglasses window. Fabled by the daughters of memory. And yet it was in some replica sunglasses way if not as memory fabled it. A phrase, then, of impatience, thud of Blakes wings of excess. I hear the ruin of all space, shattered wholesale oakley sunglasses glass and toppling masonry, and time one livid final wholesale sunglass flame.

  • Pingback: Page not found | Justin Levy