Interruptions—the ringing phone, the pinging e-mail, the too-chatty neighbor or coworker—can make you lose your train of thought, as you well know. But you may not realize how much even brief disruptions can increase your likelihood of making mistakes—including big mistakes.
A recent study in Journal of Experimental Psychology: General gauged the effects of short interruptions on 300 people who were performing difficult tasks on a computer. The startling finding: Participants’ error rates doubled after disruptions of only about three seconds…error rates tripled when interruptions lasted just four-and-a-half seconds.
The consequences of interruption-induced mistakes may be minor (when, say, you have to spend 10 minutes searching for an arithmetic error in your checkbook). Or they may be major (for instance, when a phone call momentarily distracts a mom from her toddler, who then tumbles down the stairs.)
Unplanned disruptions may seem inevitable in today’s frenetic world—but they don’t have to be. Edward Hallowell, MD, a psychiatrist and best-selling author of many books, including CrazyBusy: Overstretched, Overbooked, and About to Snap! Strategies for Handling Your Fast-Paced Life, said, “What people don’t realize is that they’ve given away control. Yet when it comes to interruptions, you have a lot more control than you think.”
Here are Dr. Hallowell’s tips for regaining control of your time and reducing errors by minimizing interruptions at home or at work…
When an uninvited neighbor or coworker drops in, don’t sit. Standing is a polite way of conveying that you’re not receptive to a chat.
Keep a large clock near your front door or in your office and comment on it when visitors overstay their welcome—“Look, it’s 3:30 already. We’d better wrap things up.” If the other person still doesn’t take the hint, don’t feel guilty about saying, “I’m sorry, but I’m in the middle of something right now. Let’s talk later.”
Rather than keeping your e-mail open continuously, check it only at designated times—for instance, first thing in the morning, after lunch and again toward the end of the day. Dealing with e-mails in batches is less disruptive than handling them one at a time. At the very least, turn off the pings and pop-ups that signal the arrival of each new message. That way, instead of dealing with constant interruptions, you can check your e-mail in between tasks when it is most convenient for you—not when some mechanized alert tells you to.
Turn off your cell-phone ringer—including vibration—so you don’t hear incoming calls and text messages. This sounds almost too obvious, but surprisingly few people actually do it.
Wear headphones—without listening to anything. The headphones not only help mute outside noise, they also serve as a polite signal to others that you are unavailable at the moment.
Shut the door to your bedroom, office or wherever you’re working on something important…or go someplace where you’re less likely to be constantly interrupted, such as a library or conference room. If that’s not possible, reposition your desk so that it doesn’t face the door—this way, you don’t look as accessible to drop-ins.
Do you tend to interrupt yourself by switching back and forth between tasks every time some new inspiration strikes? Keep a pencil and paper handy to write down any idea or “to-do” item that pops into your head, so you won’t forget it—then go right back to what you were originally doing.
If you’re often distracted by your computer (and your work doesn’t require that you be at the keyboard constantly), place the computer on a separate table behind your desk or across the room. The moment that it takes to turn toward the screen may allow you to think twice about getting sucked into some distracting online activity when you should be concentrating on the task at hand.
If you must accept an interruption, take a few seconds first to write a quick note to yourself about what you were doing. Later, using this note as a guide will make it easier to find your way back to your peak of concentration.
