- Staff keep interrupting my day and I can't get my own work done.
- Every time I get started on a critical task, the phone rings, the boss needs me or one of my staff members have a problem that has to solved right now.
- Assess the current situation and identify what is working vs. what isn't;
- Develop a plan to implement meaningful changes, even if the changes are small steps only;
- Implement the plan over a couple days-being sure to give it chance to work or not; and
- Re-assess to determine if your changes worked or do the changes need to be adjusted.
Bruce Kasanoff, in a LinkedIn Blog- A Highly Effective Way to Avoid Wasting Your Time, talks about keeping notes of your activities at the top of each hour for one day. As you review the notes, patterns will begin to show and you will be able to see what is consuming your time and then you can plan on ways to improve your management of the time.
For those managers and supervisors who are confident that staff interruptions are the cause for chaotic days and unfinished projects, the process of assessing and identifying what is really going on will be very helpful. The team may be brought into a discussion about the interruption issue and, more than likely, many on the team will feel that interruptions are their issue also. In fact, it might turn out that staff feel that the boss is one of the main interrupters- i.e., The boss is always calling me for information or to give me a new task- I can't get my work done.
Working together on developing strategic solutions and a daily work-flow plan for the entire team will bring forth ideas that helps all to reach their daily goals, for example:
- Specific time for non-critical work questions,
- Better job delegation processes,
- Effective meeting management techniques,
- A to-not-be disturbed time for all, and
- Prioritization process for work plans and goals.
You get to decide where your time goes. You can either spend it moving forward, or you can spend it putting out fires. You decide. And if you don't decide, others will decide for you. ~~Tony Morgan