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Speaker 1: Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of iHeartRadio. Good Morning,

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Speaker 1: This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast. Today's

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Speaker 1: tip is to figure out the source of your interruptions

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Speaker 1: and if you are interrupting yourself, do your best to

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Speaker 1: stop it. Today's tip, like another one this week, comes

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Speaker 1: from psychologist Tessa West. She's a professor at New York University,

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Speaker 1: an expert on interpersonal communication at work, and the author

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Speaker 1: of the book Job Therapy, Finding Work that Works for You.

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Speaker 1: If you're like a lot of knowledge workers, you may

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Speaker 1: feel like you are spinning your wheels at work because

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Speaker 1: you are constantly being interrupted. Of course, anytime someone says

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Speaker 1: something is always happening that raises my eyebrows. I mean

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Speaker 1: really always, How many times are we really talking? This

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Speaker 1: is one reason to track time so we know exactly

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Speaker 1: what is happening in a given work day, so you

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Speaker 1: won't be surprised that West advises a version of this.

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Speaker 1: People who feel concerned about interruptions should track which tasks

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Speaker 1: are getting interrupted for a few days and then ask

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Speaker 1: yourself who or what interrupted you. After that, you can

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Speaker 1: categorize these interruptions as internal or external. External interruptions are

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Speaker 1: things like a colleague dropping by your desk, a call

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Speaker 1: from your child's school, having to put away your laptop

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Speaker 1: to get off the train at your stop, or pausing

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Speaker 1: your work to go to a meeting. Internal interruptions are

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Speaker 1: things like going to get a cup of coffee, reading

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Speaker 1: a text, checking your email, switching from one work tasks

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Speaker 1: to another, or remembering you want to call your mom

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Speaker 1: for her birthday and doing it right then before you forget.

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Speaker 1: Some of these may be worthwhile, but they also come

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Speaker 1: from you. You interrupted yourself. Yes that is even true

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Speaker 1: with email and texts. You might be worried there's something

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Speaker 1: urgent there, but as the nature of these communications is

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Speaker 1: that they are asynchronous, they seldom have to be checked

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Speaker 1: at that exact moment versus say, twenty minutes early or

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Speaker 1: twenty minutes later. West encourages people who want to minimize

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Speaker 1: interruptions to start with self interruptions and explore their source. Yes,

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Speaker 1: perhaps the external interruptions are more annoying and may even

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Speaker 1: be more frequent, but in many cases those are harder

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Speaker 1: to do something about. The internal ones are within our control,

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Speaker 1: so that is the best place to make immediate progress.

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Speaker 1: So examine the conditions what leads you to interrupt yourself.

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Speaker 1: Maybe it's knowing that you are about to get something

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Speaker 1: important from your boss, and so you repeatedly pause whatever

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Speaker 1: you are working on to see whether that email has arrived.

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Speaker 1: Or maybe you interrupt yourself when you find the project

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Speaker 1: you are working on stressful or boring you're looking for

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Speaker 1: relief from that. Or maybe you interrupt yourself when a

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Speaker 1: thought crosses your mind that you want to follow up

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Speaker 1: on because you're worried you'll forget it. Or maybe your

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Speaker 1: interruptions tend to be more physical. You suddenly feel like

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Speaker 1: you'd like a glass of water or a snack or

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Speaker 1: a sweater. Anxiety might cause your self interruptions too. Anytime

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Speaker 1: you see the number of new messages on your email

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Speaker 1: or LinkedIn increase, do you feel compelled to see what's there?

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Speaker 1: With awareness, you may be able to reduce some of these.

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Speaker 1: For instance, if every afternoon you get thirsty and stop

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Speaker 1: to get something to drink, bring a glass of water

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Speaker 1: to your desk. If you can't resist hopping over in

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Speaker 1: response to new messages and notifications, turn off the audio

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Speaker 1: alerts and minimize the windows because you can't be interrupted

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Speaker 1: by a new message that you're not aware of. This

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Speaker 1: can also work if you are distracted by knowing you

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Speaker 1: are about to get something important. Even if you minimize

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Speaker 1: the window and check for the important message as frequently

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Speaker 1: as every fifteen minutes or so, that is still fewer interruptions.

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Speaker 1: Then if you check every time, the number on your

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Speaker 1: box goes up. If boredom or stress about a hard

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Speaker 1: task drives your interruptions, you might be able to become

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Speaker 1: a little more resilient. See what strategies work. Maybe it's

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Speaker 1: breaking a big project down into smaller bits. Maybe it's

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Speaker 1: the promise of rewards. If I finish these three parts

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Speaker 1: of this boring project, I can take a twenty minute

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Speaker 1: walk outside on this beautiful day. Some interruptions are inevitable

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Speaker 1: and some are complex outside our control. But when we

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Speaker 1: can understand why and how we interrupt ourselves, we're able

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Speaker 1: to eliminate at least some of our interruptions. That way,

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Speaker 1: we can focus and get more done in the meantime.

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Speaker 1: This is Laura. Thanks for listening, and here's to making

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Speaker 1: the most of our time. Thanks for listening to before breakfast.

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Speaker 1: If you've got questions, ideas, or feedback, you can reach

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Speaker 1: me at Laura at Laura vandercam dot com. Before Breakfast

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Speaker 1: is a production of iHeartMedia. For more podcasts from iHeartMedia,

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Speaker 1: listen to your favorite shows.