Constant Interruptions and Fake Multitasking - How I Fight Them

Posted on | September 20, 2009

LEGO - Bokeh
Image by ….Tim via Flickr

This blog post is inspired by Lenart J. Kučić’s article in Delo and Azaaza’s blog post about multitasking.

With so many communication channels the chance of being interrupted has rose drastically in the last few years. I often found myself in a vicious cycle where one interruption led to another in a couple of minutes - send out an email, the reply comes back in a few minutes and interrupts you / ping someone on IM, she is away and comes back in a couple of minutes.

The second issue I often faced, was trying to do multiple things at once - for example trying to complete a design or write an email and help a team member solve a problem at the same time.

A great study (saw it in Lenart’s article) from Gloria Mark, Victor M. Gonzalez and Justin Harris defines two types of interruption - external interruptions and internal interruptions

External interruptions are those that stem from events in the environment, such as a phone ringing, a colleague entering one’s cubicle, or an email signal. Internal interruptions are those in which one stops a task of their own volition. The environment likely affects the influence of external interruptions, e.g. whether one is in a closed office or open office environment. On the other hand, internal interruptions may occur if one needs a break or needs to think about another pressing matter. External and internal interruptions may affect whether and how fast work is resumed. Interruptions may also have different levels of importance.

You can limit both. Limiting external interruptions is easy - just close your Twitter client, your E-Mail client, your IM client and lock the door of your office :)

Unfortunately, if your work depends on those communication channels and you need to be accessible you just can’t do that, can you? I took a different approach - I have time slots where interruptions are expected and welcome, but I also have time slots that are focused on interruption free work. This technique enables me to stay focused on when needed, but also be ready for quick context changing when required as I am already prepared for it.

p.s.: this blog post was written during the “interruptions expected time” as a filler between interruptions ;)

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