People have an average of 11 minutes in which to do something before they are interrupted. If you would like fewer interruptions, you might try using this tip.
A few months ago, I had the pleasure of training the managers of COSI here in Columbus. They, like most people, were having problems getting all their work done and wanted to know what changes they could make to improve their success rate. One of the things we talked about was “you can’t get anything done if you don’t have a period of time in which to do it”. Although this seems self-evident, it isn’t. People really think there is a way to get everything done, they just haven’t figured it out yet. Unfortunately, they are wrong, but that’s a topic for a different time.
Ok, if you need a period of time in which to do work, how do you increase the amount of time available? One way is to cut out unnecessary interruptions (e.g., social calls, bs’ing, etc). But how do you keep people from interrupting you? If you are working at your desk and someone asks “Are you available?”, they have already interrupted you. You could try what a VP in one of my classes did – he removed all the chairs from his office so people who “dropped by” didn’t have any place to sit. But I think the idea the people at COSI came up may be more practical.
Outside the entrance to their work area, they post a three color traffic light – like the stop lights we are all familiar with. If the light is green, they are available and can be interrupted. If its yellow, they are busy and would prefer not to be disturb, but can be if it’s necessary. Red means they are not to be interrupted unless it is a real emergency where life is at stake. Simple, but effective.
What makes it work well at COSI is that everyone abides by the traffic light, so if you want to try something like this, you will want to educate people as to what you are up to.
I have a meeting with some of the managers at COSI in two weeks and will let you know what they say about it now.
Love this! An existence system for no interruptions. Cool.
Good idea Jeff, when I am onsite with clients it is amazing to see the number of interruptions that will take place in the course of a consult.
Perhaps the home office is the way of the future. I know I have much fewer distractions when there.
This is tricky in a cube farm. It can be a real challenge if the cubes are arranged like a bull pen configuration. You would get interrupted by other people walking by checking for your cube mate.