The Productivity Pro® Blog by Laura Stack - Time Management, Getting Things Done, How to Be More Productive

Schedule your interruptions.  Perhaps one of the reasons you’re being interrupted so frequently is you’re never around and available.  This is especially true of people who travel for a living or spent most of the day wrapped up in meetings.  It’s understandable that you’ll be pounced upon by your assistant when you suddenly emerge, and she’s been waiting to ask you some questions for two days.  Here are some ways you can actually plan for and around interruptions:

·        Schedule regular check-in times. If you have an assistant, you’ll want to set up a regular time (or several times) each day or week to touch base.  Have your assistant “save up” all questions he or she has and ask them all at once during your regularly scheduled meeting.  This process keeps your assistant from interrupting you ten times a day to ask you one thing and instead uses one meeting to ask you ten things.  Similarly, if your boss is the one you aren’t able to pin down, suggest this process for yourself.

·        Block out interruptible times.  One Human Resources Director I worked with figured out she was interrupted every 11 minutes.  She had to work late just to get her work done—although talking with employees was important—because she couldn’t get the space of mind to finish a task through completion.  I suggested she block out several time periods each day and ask people to “sign up” instead.  She scheduled an “Interruption” block in her Outlook calendar from 9:00-11:00 and 1:00-3:00 each day, printed her calendar sheets, and taped them to the counter of the reception area.  Her assistant fielded interruptions, telling employees she now scheduled discussions by appointment, and people willingly checked the blocks of time and signed up for a 30-minute meeting.  If it was absolutely an emergency (the HR Director had already briefed her assistant on what issues were deemed an emergency), the appointment was waived.  Perhaps you won’t block out four hours a day as she did, but you can use the concept to communicate to peers, internal customers, and subordinates the times you’re willing to be interrupted.  Think of it as a limited “open door” policy: only open at certain times.  You might think it won’t work, but would you expect your hair stylist to allow you to drop by when she’s not working?  Would you then get upset that she didn’t respond to your beck and call?  Believe me, people will get used to it.

·        Set aside “down time.”  One architecture firm I worked with established a firm “no interruption time” during the hours of 9:00 to 10:30 every morning.  How would you like having 90 minutes of complete concentration every day, when meetings weren’t allowed, instant messaging was disabled, phones were forwarded to voice mail, no interruptions were allowed, and the email servers were turned off?  Drastic?  But wildly popular for the people who could actually focus on completing an important task without being distracted.  You probably won’t be able to swing this policy company-wide but could try to work it out with those whom you work with most.  You are probably interrupted by a “core” group of people throughout the day, so work with your team to establish this down time, dedicated to real work.  Hey, even kindergarteners know the importance of rest time.  Without it, they get really grouchy—and so do you.

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It’s very hard to do much of anything when you’re in pain.  Chronic pain can really sap your energy.  I’m guilty of putting up with too much pain, deciding “that’s just the way it is; nothing I can do about it.”  I’ve been in a few car accidents over the years—including one major one in which I fractured my back at 20 years old.  I’ve dealt with whiplash (and corresponding problems with my cervical spine) and a compression fracture between my shoulder blades (and corresponding problems with my thoracic spine).  I went through a lot of physical therapy, chiropractic, acupuncture, and injections to try to cure the pain, and many treatments were helpful, but nothing completely resolved my pain.  So basically I endure a dull ache in my back.  I often have the mental ability to work longer at a task, but the pain in my back won’t allow me to, so I have to get up and move around.  Recently, I decided to stop saying “that’s just the way it is” and went to my doctor to see if I could something about it.  After x-rays and an MRI, it turns out I have degenerative arthritis of the lower back at 37 years old.  Oh, is that it?  Well at least it’s not related to the car accidents as I once thought.  After a course of daily medication, yoga, and a strengthening regimen, I feel great!  If you really want to be productive and stop wasting time from being in pain, I’d suggest you brainstorm your top five most significant health problems (headache, high blood pressure, toothache, insomnia, allergies, pain, asthma, hoarseness, acne, foot pain, constipation, joint problems, sinus problems, hair loss, heartburn, etc.) and possible causes.  How would you like to feel?  Take a moment to visualize what you wish to happen in the future regarding these health issues.  Call a new doctor in a different field and get an appointment.  Ask your primary care physician for a referral.  Spend some time researching the Internet.  Don’t take “you’ll have to live with it” as an answer. 

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I recently met a former astronaut, Rick Searfoss, who told me he brings on the lessons of teamwork, leadership, innovation and peak performance lessons of human spaceflight down to earth for all to enjoy (www.astronautspeaker.com).  I bit and asked him what he learned about time management by being an astronaut and if there was such a thing as productivity in space.  His quotes on how the principles of productivity apply in space fascinated me, and I hope you gain some insights from his experiences as well:

“There’s nothing so bad that you can’t make it worse.”  He spent hundreds of hours in a simulator, training on what to do in an emergency, and working on procedures he may never have to use.  From a technical perspective, the rookie pilot the left has the most intense job, such that it’s called “the snake pit.”  They are actually over-preparing, spending extra time being ready for “what if” scenarios.  When in a crisis situation, you can now deal with it on autopilot, and you will be grateful for the extra time spent. 

“Take a second to wind the clock.”  Old aviation clocks had to be wound, which gave the brain a few minutes to look around.  It’s important to step back and recognize your human limitations.  You can’t work non-stop without a break to refuel, or your machine will die on you.

“Keep your mind ahead of the airplane.”  This speaks to being proactive—no matter how fast you’re flying along—you must make sure you think ahead.  He said he thinks Larry Bird great player because he was able to anticipate where the ball was going and so was always one or two steps ahead of everyone else. 

“You don’t want to be all airspeed and no direction.”  You must first figure out your direction, and then apply the energy and the airspeed.  Once your goal is programmed, you kick in the afterburner and go for it.  When you’re flying at 600 mph, low, under the radar, you can get lost fast.

“Preparation puts you on autopilot.”  In space, you must have great situational awareness: understanding everything that’s going on around you.  You are tracking your wingmen while thinking about the mission to accomplish.  The more prepared you are, the more you’re able to function productively in a non-stressed way, even though the environment could be more stressful. 

“Too bad.”  When he was the shuttle commander, he had five rookies on board.  With one year of planning to execute his mission, dozens of experiments to do on board, emergency procedures to be learned, and training schedules to be met, his rookie crew planned too much.  They wanted to do countless extra science experiments for others and had overloaded themselves.  As the leader, he instructed his crew to let go of the lower priority items.  He used the phrase “too bad” when someone has for permission to add another task to the already overloaded schedule.  As a supervisor, if your folks have too many priorities competing for their time, you must cut things out at the bottom and look to optimize, not maximize, what you get out of your people.

“Know what to timeline.”  There are certain activities when blasting off into space that must be timed literally down to the second, such as the precise time to ignite the engines.  But not all activities are timed, such as housekeeping activities, eating, restrooms, etc.  They struck a balance between having structure and having flexibility.  They planned for the important things and allowing some movement on the lower priority tasks.  Just make sure you block out time to get the important things done.

“You have to slow down to speed up.”  With no gravity, the faster you try to move physically from one place to the other, the more bumps and bruises you will get.  The rookies soon discovered that with weightlessness, speed only serves to make you run into walls and bang your head.  After a couple days of watching the veterans, they made every motion and activity purposeful and learned to slow down.  Where are you wasting motion and effort?  Just because you’re rushing around, are you accomplishing anything?  Are your movements purposeful?

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