How to Deal With Office Interruptions
Every job has its interruptions. When you’re in a regular office, you may have a coworker who drops in on you regularly to unload his or her latest thoughts about your company’s management team. Or you may have a boss who is so busy assigning you new tasks that you never seem to be able to get around to the old ones.
Without a doubt, however, working at home offers its own unique set of interruptions. Your job is to find ways to ignore them or to avoid them altogether.
You can’t always prevent interruptions, but you can do things to remove them after they occur and then get back on track and back to work.
Here are some ways to deal with interruptions:
Focus On Your Goals and Priorities
Although you may not be able to keep from being thrown off track when an interruption occurs, you should be able to quickly return your focus to the goals and priorities at hand.
How? By resolving the interruption as quickly as possible and then refocusing your full attention on your work.
Be Kind, but Firm
The wrong way to deal with interruptions is to get mad at the person who is interrupting you.
The right way is to firmly explain, in a loving and supportive way, that the interruptions will have to stop while you’re working.
Kids especially need this kind of caring treatment. They probably aren’t aware that they’re interrupting your work; they simply want a chance to spend some time with you.
With a bit of practice, you’ll soon be able to deal with your interruptions like a pro – and you’ll find that you can take charge of them instead of letting them take charge of you.
