Stick with this to the end if you can — although we'll understand if you have to break away.
Interruptions now consume 28 per cent of the average knowledge worker's day, according to New York-based research firm Basex.
"Whether sitting at a desk in an office, in a conference room, in one's home office or at a client's, the likelihood of being able to complete a task...without interruption is nearly nil," Basex researchers Jonathan Spira and David Goldes say in a recently published report on information overload.
Those who work in open-concept offices are particularly vulnerable: Out in plain view, they're easy targets for what Toronto productivity coach Robert Steinbach calls "the drive-by interruption."
Robert Steinbach, President of The Genius Corporation talks at the National Club about multitasking and efficiency on April 11, 2007. (Jim Ross/The Globe and Mail)
However, even those who hide out at home to get more work done are not immune to being sidetracked by e-mails and phone calls, unless they totally unplug, say Mr. Spira and Mr. Goldes, whose firm conducts research on work environments, workplace demands and productivity.
"New work environments [such as the home office] bring new possibilities for work disruption and interruptions. For example...some telecommuters report that they become the de facto recipient of UPS deliveries for neighbours."
Now, where were we?
Oh yes. It will come as no surprise to anyone who endures multiple interruptions in a day that this takes a toll on productivity. Even those who do it to themselves — by deliberately multitasking — lose focus as they switch back and forth between projects, or attempt to do more than one thing at once, according to a growing body of research.
"Despite the impressive complexity and processing power of the human brain, it exhibits severe capacity limits in information processing," says a Vanderbilt University study published in the December issue of the journal Neuron.
"Nowhere is this better illustrated than when we attempt to perform two tasks at once, as such conditions will invariably lead to interference between the tasks," the Vanderbilt researchers write.
In another study, researchers at the University of Illinois report that "when tasks are interrupted at random moments, users take longer to complete tasks, commit more errors, and experience increased annoyance, anxiety and frustration."
At a recent workshop presented to Toronto's Strategic Leadership Forum, Mr. Steinbach noted that "multitasking used to be called not paying attention." But now having many projects on the go is regarded as a virtue — if you can juggle them.
It's especially hard for people to refocus after they have dropped everything, midtask, to answer the phone, respond to an e-mail or deal with a boss or co-worker who has come by with a request, he says.
"Reclaiming your time is one of the biggest challenges for a lot of people, especially in an open-office concept or an open-door concept," Mr. Steinbach says. "You can have a drive-by interruption at any time."
The University of Illinois study found that a group of information technology employees at Microsoft Corp. took, on average, 15 minutes to return to serious mental tasks, such as writing computer codes or reports, after responding to incoming e-mails or text messages.
Doug Heidebrecht, a Toronto-based workload management expert, says employees take on more than they can handle because they think they must.
"It's not just a case of too much e-mail, too many interruptions, too many projects or too many instant message sessions," Mr. Spira and Mr. Goldes write.
"It's how these things all mesh together — sometimes like an orchestra without a conductor...[and] the tools that serve as a lubricant and keep knowledge flowing, such as e-mail, the Web, and instant messaging, also act as a wrench in the works when they interrupt the knowledge worker and cause information overload."
How to reclaim your time? Here are strategies from the experts:
If a boss or co-worker interrupts you in mid-stream, complete the immediate task at hand and make note of the next step needed before breaking off to deal with their issue.
So you won't break your train of thought, ask the interloper if you can get back in five minutes, half an hour or whatever you need, unless it's an absolute emergency.
Finish what you are doing, to a logical point, before breaking off to deal with something else.
Curb the impulse to answer phone calls or e-mails the minute they come in. Unless you are expecting an urgent message, let the machine take it.
Try not to interrupt others, either. Don't phone five minutes after sending an e-mail.
Be pre-emptive. Let bosses and co-workers know in advance what you are doing. But leave enough room in the day for those inevitable interruptions.
