Focus on Interruptions
Posted at 5:05 AM on October 13, 2009
by Dale Connelly
(19 Comments)
More about that in a moment, but first - this entertaining diversion.
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We'll close off entries at 1pm today. Good luck!
Now, where were we? Oh yes - interruptions.
Today I received this e-mail from idea man and innovator Spin Williams:
Hello DALE,One of the greatest enemies of productivity is distraction.
It's a national crisis.Did you know, on average, a working person is interrupted every twenty minutes? And once that interruption happens, it takes twenty-five minutes to get back on task?
Yes! It means that most interrupted people are interrupted AGAIN before they get back to the job they were trying to do in the first place. And it happens over and over, day in and year out.
Researchers have discovered that nobody is actually doing his or her real job, and they haven't done it for YEARS! But thanks to our multi-task loving culture where activity is thought to equal efficiency, as long as we stay busy, we don't notice that we're wasting our time!
While you think about that, could you stop what you're doing and go make a pot of coffee? I'll wait.
OK, thanks. Welcome back.
Have you been thinking about our national distraction crisis while you made the coffee? If you have, you've probably come to the same conclusion I reached moments ago - the real culprit in this enormous waste of time and resources is both easy to identify, and terribly difficult to address.
It's Other People!
In most cases, these Disruptive Other People are friends and co-workers - people who are constantly being interrupted, just like you, so they don't know what their real jobs are either. All they know is there's a whole bunch of stuff that isn't getting done, so they swing by your desk or shoot you an e-mail to ask you to take care of it.
I've decided to form a new company to face up to this pressing economic problem. It's called Spin Williams' Effective Attention Resources, or SWEAR. SWEAR will develop products to support a War on Distraction that will take place around your desk, your computer, and around your brain itself!
What are these products? I don't know. I haven't developed any because it took me the last two hours to come up with the business rationale you just read and I asked Kenny of lobby services to be my placeholder at The Meeting That Never Ends while I roughed it out.
I have to get back in there in case I missed something.
What would help fend off productivity-sucking interruptions and distractions? A helmet? A force field? Some kind of attention sentry to stand watch as you work, like a man-or-woman servant? Or maybe I should have SWEAR sponsor a big public seminar or an expensive-to-attend stadium rally with guest speakers, fireworks, stunts and dancers, all to bring all our attention to bear on the distraction problem.
If you can figure out a good way to fight these inefficient distractions, drop what you're doing right now and take a few minutes to give it to me here, for free.I'll try to exploit your idea to make money. I SWEAR!
This looks like a potentially lucrative new venture for Spin. And an interesting project for you. What else were you going to do right now anyway?
Comments (19)
what were we talking about?
i vote for Donna to head SWEAR
good morning!
How about the "Chocolate cake Song" with the frazzled mother trying to share a recipe while herding kids? Kids are the proving ground where we learn to handle distractions and to multi-task. Office work is a piece of cake in contrast.
Happy Autumner to all in the Heartland!
Okay Barb - I'm on it.
I've got the coffee made and am currently sipping, reading and giggling over the fun read this morning. Other People most certainly are the culprits. My greatest work frustration is having so many 21st Century instructional practices pushed at me that I barely have the chance to internalize one before I'm in-serviced on the next. But that's the way the world turns. I wish Spin could find a way to slow it down a little, dammit! Maybe a daily siesta for the US work force.
OR a chocolate cake break. Hey - that rhymes!
I set out to leave a comment at about 6:25 this morning and am not going to try to count the interruptions that have occurred since then. ;-)
Good Tuesday morning, all!
Greetings! I was a secretary for 20 years and interruptions were my job description. Answering ringing phones, trying to schedule meetings while typing and fending off bosses who wanted their work done first.
It's definitely Other People's fault. I'd like to hear "Helmet Song" by the Bobs if it hasn't been played yet. I'm usually intensely focused on one thing and tune out everyone else for the most part -- that's my story and I'm sticking to it!
I don't think I ever had a job where other people constantly bothered me, but I was at home with young children so I know how hard it is to get things done in that situation.
.
Even if you are at home alone retired, like I am, there are distraction if you are scatter brained like I am. You have to learn to focus and tell those distracting people or thoughts to go away, but I don't know how you do that.
I heard Buffy St. Marie interviewed yesterday and she said she just does things she enjoys doing follow the advice of the Dali Lama (I hope I spelled his name right). Well, I don't how I could get away with following Buffy's advice.
I find that streaming RH on my iPod works well as a force field against distraction - or at least it blocks out all the ambient conversations that seem to happen throughout the day just outside my cubicle (I'm right by the elevator, the stairs, and the break area - lucky me). If that ceases to work, I may have to go with the tinfoil hat option - at least people might think twice before starting a conversation with me with a fine silvery chapeau.
Or I could put a couple of chocolate cakes on the other side of the break area to keep people away from my cube. (I'd have to keep a piece for myself, though, to avoid the distraction of cake aromas.)
My definition of Parenthood is "that period of your life when nothing you do is so important that it can't be trumped by someting else." I guess that may be the definition of any job, according to Spin!
Earplugs, maybe?
the beauty of the this topic is that everyone is screwed up except me and you and i'm not really so sure about you. i am the one who has made a career of letting my brain wander around and back for years. i have a great right hand man who knows i will get back around to it if not today it will be tomorrow or next week. i have the luxury of having 25 projects going on at a time and deadlines for each. if i had to stick to a single thought i'd be in trouble. i do have the ability to stay on it if needed but the freedom to let my mind wander. i however am the visionary in my company, when the worker bees are given a task and it takes a full day to do two hours work it is very frustrating. i have considered reworking the pay schedule and paying by the task completed instead of salary or hourly wages. i bet people would have a whole different perspective if they knew they were costing themselves money instead of me.
now kids homework and instant messaging while the tv and video games are on. don't get me started...
for me it is Other Goats that provide the distractions. the milker must always pay attention so that the milkee does not put her foot nearby or into the pail. so if the milker is focusing on that task, Other Goats often provide a distraction so that the milker looks up to see what is going on. at that point, the milkee quickly takes advantage of the milker's loss of focus and puts her foot into or kicks the pail to cause spillage or contamination. then they all high five - actually, high two - and they feel superior.
i'm enjoying my new favorite Dream Foam coffee, the stream flows well today, and the pail went unkicked. wish you all could have this happiness
Here is a plan for Spin: write a self help book on his idea, get on the book promotion tour, then get his own TV show on this topic. However, he should stay away from work places, because the true nature of his effort would be discovered, he would turn out to just be another distraction.
thanks for the bucket song, Dale - a nice distraction from soap recipes.
happy day
Cynthia probably never has those bucket problems, right? :-)
Tim -- what a fascinating account of your job. It would be interesting to see what would happen in the world of work if we were rewarded for job completed... Boy would I be in trouble. And I am glad I'm not a parent now with all these new tech toys.
Barb -- I sympathize. And I think you could market to Caribou Coffee (Minnesota's answer to Starbucks), this new flavor Dream Foam...
I am enjoying the irony of the last hour of my life. I finally get to the blog to read it. I got about a third of the way through it and then I was interrupted by the thought that I should do my job for a little while, so I did a little work. Then I got distracted by my curiosity about what Spin might propose, so I went back to the blog and got nearly to the end and my phone rang, so I had to work some more. Then I got intensely curious about the responses to the blog entry and got back to it. Then, my cubicle aisle got kind of busy with folks going to lunch, etc. and I thought I should look busy, so I went back to my job. I finally got to the end of the responses, interrupted (ironically, I was interrupted while typing the word "interrupted) by my own laughing. Then I went back to work for a few minutes to ease my guilt, since it was interrupting my enjoyment of the blog entries. Composing my own response in my head was interrupting my work, and so here I am typing my response; getting interrrupted every couple of minutes or so, as above.
My new drug is meditation. I took a class this spring and I have been trying to incorporate it into my life (but of course I keep getting interrupted). My teacher recommended a website that's just called Mindfulness Bell. (I could post a link, but I don't know if the link will appear on here. If you Google it, it comes right up.) You can set it to ring at regular or irregular intervals. When it rings, I close my eyes and take one breath. I do believe that it helps me to focus with all of the distractions in my work and life. The irony, is, of course, that the bell interrupts whatever I am doing...
Happy Tuesday, Y'all!
Barbara - yeah, i can see them lined up at the barn door, waiting for their squirts. except the health department might have something to say about that - ha, ha!
gosh, Darcy - i'm so glad you're ok! i read the first sentence of your entry and was totally distracted by the thought that this really WAS the LAST HOUR OF YOUR LIFE and you were blogging with us! glad i got back to reading your entry and was relived to know that your were talking not about THE last hour but just the hour that had just passed. whew! (but it was kind of cool to think you'd spend your last hour with us)
I should have said the PAST hour. Writing clearly has always been so distracting to me! yes, I am fine and thank you for your concern! :)
Although, I am leaving work now to go to the dentist, so maybe it just felt like my LAST HOUR for some reason.
Yo, Barb and Darcy. Thanks for inviting me to the after-hours blog party.
I needed to get back on here to cite Beth-Ann for the inspiration behind my "chocolate cake break" rhyme this morning. Thank you B.A!
I saw a sign once, in a teachers' supply store of all places, meant to reduce interruptions. It said, "I'd love to help you out - show me which door you came in."
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