Choose interruptible work when you'll be interrupted

Avoid frustration by matching the right work to the right time

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:03):
Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of iHeartRadio. Good Morning.
This is Laura, Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast. Today's
tip is that during times when you are likely to
be interrupted, choose work that is interruptible. We all have

(00:26):
some sorts of work that are easier to pause and
pick back up than others. So make smart choices for
times when you will experience interruptions, and you will avoid
frustration and probably get more done. So my weekday mornings
are fairly drawn out. I have five kids at four

(00:47):
different schools with different start times. I'm usually not managing
all of this on my own, but even with a
husband and child care help, I know that until everyone
is out of the house, I am not going to
have complete quiet. But that doesn't mean I can't get
anything done. Ar nanny comes to work at eight a m.

(01:09):
And leaves with the little boys for school around eight
forty a m. I am not officially on during those
forty minutes with the kids, but the odds of a
kid interrupting me for something are quite high, so I
choose interruptible work. This means that I answer blog comments

(01:30):
or emails from readers. I'll fill out my time log
I'll tackle administrative matters, or maybe work on a content
calendar for my newsletters or various shows. Then once the
little boys are in the car and out of the
house at eight forty, it's time to switch over to
deeper work. This is when I get going on harder

(01:52):
writing or editing or recording. I am far less likely
to be interrupted, so I choose work that I would
prefer not to have be interrupted. Maybe for you, the
interruptions aren't kids who can't find their trumpet or water bottle.
Maybe it's a junior colleague who always has questions at

(02:13):
the beginning of the day. Or maybe your interruptions come
from a contractor who asks a question every five minutes
for his first hour at your house. Maybe you have
to transfer from one train line to another before you
get a nice long stretch where you can sit and focus.
Whatever the nature of your interruptions, it pays to be

(02:34):
honest about them and to notice when you are most
likely to experience interruptions and when you may be able
to block some time for uninterrupted work. If you know
a period of time is likely to be full of interruptions,
choose tasks that you can easily get into and out

(02:55):
of For most of us, that is stuff like processing email,
like copy editing, paying bills, filling out forms. You'll be
able to check these things off your list and be
free to dive into your most important work at a
better time. Now, to be sure, we do need to

(03:15):
be careful about this. If you do have potential deep
work time, you don't want to spend the first forty
five minutes of it clearing the decks, So be clear
that this is interruptible time before you wade into the shallows. Also,
if you have a life where the interruptions never stop,

(03:36):
maybe you need to do something about that, like renting
an office if you are working from home, or establishing
some office hours for interacting with colleagues. But if your
day just features the normal mix of interruptible time and
focus time, then choose the right work for the right time.

(03:56):
If you are going to be interrupted, choose interruptible work.
We all have some and it probably does have to
get done eventually, so better not to choose time for
it that could have been better spent doing something else
in the meantime. This is Laura. Thanks for listening, and

(04:18):
here's to making the most of our talk. Thanks for
listening to Before Breakfast. If you've got questions, ideas, or feedback,
you can reach me at Laura at Laura vandercam dot com.

(04:42):
Before Breakfast is a production of iHeartMedia. For more podcasts
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