Speaker 1: Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of iHeartRadio. Good Morning,
Speaker 1: This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast. Today's
Speaker 1: tip is to figure out the source of your interruptions
Speaker 1: and if you are interrupting yourself, do your best to
Speaker 1: stop it. Today's tip, like another one this week, comes
Speaker 1: from psychologist Tessa West. She's a professor at New York University,
Speaker 1: an expert on interpersonal communication at work, and the author
Speaker 1: of the book Job Therapy, Finding Work that Works for You.
Speaker 1: If you're like a lot of knowledge workers, you may
Speaker 1: feel like you are spinning your wheels at work because
Speaker 1: you are constantly being interrupted. Of course, anytime someone says
Speaker 1: something is always happening that raises my eyebrows. I mean
Speaker 1: really always, How many times are we really talking? This
Speaker 1: is one reason to track time so we know exactly
Speaker 1: what is happening in a given work day, so you
Speaker 1: won't be surprised that West advises a version of this.
Speaker 1: People who feel concerned about interruptions should track which tasks
Speaker 1: are getting interrupted for a few days and then ask
Speaker 1: yourself who or what interrupted you. After that, you can
Speaker 1: categorize these interruptions as internal or external. External interruptions are
Speaker 1: things like a colleague dropping by your desk, a call
Speaker 1: from your child's school, having to put away your laptop
Speaker 1: to get off the train at your stop, or pausing
Speaker 1: your work to go to a meeting. Internal interruptions are
Speaker 1: things like going to get a cup of coffee, reading
Speaker 1: a text, checking your email, switching from one work tasks
Speaker 1: to another, or remembering you want to call your mom
Speaker 1: for her birthday and doing it right then before you forget.
Speaker 1: Some of these may be worthwhile, but they also come
Speaker 1: from you. You interrupted yourself. Yes that is even true
Speaker 1: with email and texts. You might be worried there's something
Speaker 1: urgent there, but as the nature of these communications is
Speaker 1: that they are asynchronous, they seldom have to be checked
Speaker 1: at that exact moment versus say, twenty minutes early or
Speaker 1: twenty minutes later. West encourages people who want to minimize
Speaker 1: interruptions to start with self interruptions and explore their source. Yes,
Speaker 1: perhaps the external interruptions are more annoying and may even
Speaker 1: be more frequent, but in many cases those are harder
Speaker 1: to do something about. The internal ones are within our control,
Speaker 1: so that is the best place to make immediate progress.
Speaker 1: So examine the conditions what leads you to interrupt yourself.
Speaker 1: Maybe it's knowing that you are about to get something
Speaker 1: important from your boss, and so you repeatedly pause whatever
Speaker 1: you are working on to see whether that email has arrived.
Speaker 1: Or maybe you interrupt yourself when you find the project
Speaker 1: you are working on stressful or boring you're looking for
Speaker 1: relief from that. Or maybe you interrupt yourself when a
Speaker 1: thought crosses your mind that you want to follow up
Speaker 1: on because you're worried you'll forget it. Or maybe your
Speaker 1: interruptions tend to be more physical. You suddenly feel like
Speaker 1: you'd like a glass of water or a snack or
Speaker 1: a sweater. Anxiety might cause your self interruptions too. Anytime
Speaker 1: you see the number of new messages on your email
Speaker 1: or LinkedIn increase, do you feel compelled to see what's there?
Speaker 1: With awareness, you may be able to reduce some of these.
Speaker 1: For instance, if every afternoon you get thirsty and stop
Speaker 1: to get something to drink, bring a glass of water
Speaker 1: to your desk. If you can't resist hopping over in
Speaker 1: response to new messages and notifications, turn off the audio
Speaker 1: alerts and minimize the windows because you can't be interrupted
Speaker 1: by a new message that you're not aware of. This
Speaker 1: can also work if you are distracted by knowing you
Speaker 1: are about to get something important. Even if you minimize
Speaker 1: the window and check for the important message as frequently
Speaker 1: as every fifteen minutes or so, that is still fewer interruptions.
Speaker 1: Then if you check every time, the number on your
Speaker 1: box goes up. If boredom or stress about a hard
Speaker 1: task drives your interruptions, you might be able to become
Speaker 1: a little more resilient. See what strategies work. Maybe it's
Speaker 1: breaking a big project down into smaller bits. Maybe it's
Speaker 1: the promise of rewards. If I finish these three parts
Speaker 1: of this boring project, I can take a twenty minute
Speaker 1: walk outside on this beautiful day. Some interruptions are inevitable
Speaker 1: and some are complex outside our control. But when we
Speaker 1: can understand why and how we interrupt ourselves, we're able
Speaker 1: to eliminate at least some of our interruptions. That way,
Speaker 1: we can focus and get more done in the meantime.
Speaker 1: This is Laura. Thanks for listening, and here's to making
Speaker 1: the most of our time. Thanks for listening to before breakfast.
Speaker 1: If you've got questions, ideas, or feedback, you can reach
Speaker 1: me at Laura at Laura vandercam dot com. Before Breakfast
Speaker 1: is a production of iHeartMedia. For more podcasts from iHeartMedia,
Speaker 1: please visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you
Speaker 1: listen to your favorite shows.