WHY
INTERRUPTIONS CAN hurt
YOUR
BUSINESS
SIX
STEPS TO AVOID INTERRUPTIONS
“Gotta
minute?” How
many times would you say you are interrupted in a day? 10 times? 20 times? More? If
we really paid attention to how many times we are STOPPED from what we are
doing, we might be truly surprised.
Because interruptions are so common-place, we tend to treat them with a
grain of salt. “Oh well, where was
I?” However, interruptions can be devastating to your business and other
areas of your life that are important to you.
WHY ARE
INTERRUPTIONS SO DAMAGING?
Interruptions
can damage your business because they disrupt your “flow”, alter your train of
thought, change your emotions and distract you from the business at hand. They are damaging because they can be the
reason you produce a less-than-superior product. You might wind up with a product or service
that is of inferior quality, just because you ran out of time! Interruptions interfered with your productivity.
Think
of it this way:
You’re watching a movie and you are in the “flow” of what is going on. Your emotions are involved because right now
you are at the height of intensity …
suspense is building … who is it around that corner? … Oh NO! What’s going to happen? … Then suddenly …
TOOTHPASTE – INSURANCE – CAR DEALERSHIP commercials interrupt! A
5-minute
stream of commercials suddenly alters your emotions and takes you totally out
of the moment. Where is the intensity?
Where is the emotion? Where is
the suspense? Gone with the wind! Or
should I say, “Gone with the commercials!”
Now the movie comes back on and you think, “Okay, where were we..? Oh
yeah, that’s right.” And you try to pick up where you left off, but you’ve lost
a lot of the “electricity” surrounding the moment.
The
same thing can happen to us in business.
Let’s say you’re writing an article for your newsletter. You’re deep in thought. You’re in ‘the zone’, excited about what you
are writing. You can feel it!
Ideas are flowing from your fingers like water flowing from a faucet and
you’re in sync with your subject.
Suddenly you hear, “Hey Bob, you’ve gotta see this! It will only take a second!” Your husband walks in from behind and says,
“Hey honey, I need you to take care of this for me. I’m in a hurry, and I’m running late.” Five minutes later, you come back to the page
and where are you? “Ummmm, let’s see,
oh yeah …” but where is the emotion?
What happened to the flow of ideas?
Now you have to think harder to reach back and try to recapture where
you were. Then the phone rings and you talk with a colleague for a few
minutes. By the time you get back to it
for the 3rd or 4th time, you’re just ready to be done
with it! “I’ve just got to get this
thing done so I can get it out there.”
And so you finish. But you finish
with a different product than you would have had you produced it uninterrupted.
It’s “OK”, but not “GREAT!” Over time,
this can hurt your business.
HOW CAN I
MANAGE INTERRUPTIONS?
But
how can I manage interruptions when they are coming in from outside
sources? THEY are interrupting ME, right? It’s just something we all have to deal with
and work around, right? Not
necessarily! While it’s true that everyone
will have the occasional unexpected emergency which must be addressed immediately,
this should certainly be the exception rather than the rule.
The
very first rule in managing inter-ruptions is to learn to say “Sorry, I can’t
right now.” Plain and simple! It’s not always easy to do, but if we force
ourselves to say “No” over and over again, people will get the idea that we are
protective of our time and take our work very seriously. Letting people know that you will be
unavailable ahead of time is helpful too.
Truth
is, we interrupt OURSELVES more than anyone else does! You’re right in the middle of doing something
important and suddenly you think, “Yikes! I was going to call Mary about…” “Oh! I need to shoot Steve an email!” “Man, I’m so hungry! I think I’ll get something to eat!” We really
need to learn how to discipline ourselves from constantly stopping ourselves in
the middle of what we are doing.
SIX STEPS TO
AVOID INTERRUPTIONS
1.) Let others
know you won’t be available.
2.) Make sure you
have everything you need before you start a project.
3.) Silence your
phone and email while you’re working on something important.
4.) Don’t make
calls or send emails until you have completed your task.
5.) Learn to say
“Not now” to would-be interrupters.
6.) Be determined
to protect your time.
When
we are crafting our next presentation, writing a newsletter, planning our
strategy, reading an important book, following up with customers, or anything
else related to our productivity, we need to discipline ourselves to say “No”
to others AND to ourselves in order to stay on task until it is completed. Don’t let inter- ruptions devastate YOUR
business!
Leanne
Cannon
DREAM
ACHIEVERS UNLIMITED
