Studies
show that when you are interrupted, it takes 20 minutes to regain the level of
concentration you had reached before the disruption. Furthermore, in nearly 50
percent of the cases, a person never even returns to the original task. Track
yourself for a week or two. Understand your own proclivity to be railroaded by
someone who bursts into your office begging for help or that tendency to reach
for the phone every time it rings. Each time you are interrupted, note the
time, who it was, what they needed from you, and how long it took. Then, grade
the importance and urgency of the interruption: A = critical and urgent; B =
important but not urgent; C = unnecessary and not worth the time. At the end of
the week, study your log to determine....
Good tracking tool, Julie, thanks. You don't mention e-interruptions here and tracking those could probably be a full-time job for a lot of us! Tracking how often you got to e-mail, chats, the internet, IMs, text messages, etc. can be very revealing. Turning off all electronic devices that send you visual or auditory alerts is critical for single-tasking.
Also, "training" people who might interrupt is super helpful. I communicate in advance with my co-workers to let them know I won't be answering e-mail for two days in order to focus on a specific project and that if they send a high priority e-mail I'll look at it at noon each day. Works great!
Joan Dempsey
http://www.literaryliving.com
