I was having a conversation with Brodie, a client and a friend of mine, and I asked him what irritates him the most at work. Brodie is a project manager for pipeline construction and oil lease facilities. He takes his job and personal growth seriously.
Brodie said, "Nothing pisses me off more than being interrupted while I'm focused at work. I'm sitting at my desk reading or writing a report or trying to understand software I am not familiar with and quite possibly hate using. The interruption feels like they threw a flash-bang grenade at me."
The Science Behind Why Interruptions Hurt So Much
Brodie is frustrated because when he's focused on a task, interruptions are as disorienting as a flash-bang. It's called the OODA Loop — a term coined by Air Force Major John Boyd that businesses, TV ads, your children, and SWAT teams use to disrupt a person's attention.
OODA stands for Observe – Orient – Decide – Act.
When someone interrupts your work, you have to pay attention to them — which breaks your train of thought. Then you have to orient yourself to the interruption. Your brain is switching tasks. Then you have to decide what to do. Then you have to act on it.
Research shows that you lose up to half an hour getting back to your original task. Every time. If you get interrupted five times a day you lose more than two hours of focused work. Research also shows you might be losing as much as 40% of your productivity when you multi-task.
People get frustrated and angry at unnecessary interruptions not just because they waste time but also because the brain requires more energy to refocus — the same energy source the body uses for other operations. A day full of interruptions leaves you feeling tired and sapped of energy.
The Five Fixes
- Have the conversation. Tell everybody that you have signs and times when you need to focus on your job. Tell them that your job is to make them successful so you need your time to get your work done. If you don't tell them and they keep interrupting you and you let them, you are training them that it's okay.
- Separate yourself physically. Close the door to your office or put on a set of headphones. Even if you have an open-door policy, you have to do this. A closed door doesn't mean you don't want to hear it — it just means you don't want to hear it right then.
- Use a sign or signal. A stop sign, green/yellow/red paper, flags — whatever works. When I am recording a podcast I have a sign on my door that says, "On The Air!" People will know when you use the stop sign to hide. Don't abuse it.
- Stop the technology interruptions. Notifications from texts, phone calls, and apps cost you the same amount of time as someone walking in your door. Use your phone's settings to manage calls. Use an app that blocks notifications from other apps.
- Don't open new emails unless they are pertinent to the task at hand. Don't go down that rabbit hole. You'll never find your way back.
Brodie took these steps to minimize interruptions and got more work done and was less stressed about work. The results showed up at work and at home.