Interruptions are a part of the "perfectly normal" day. Expect them and don't be thrown off by them. It happens to everyone and if you were to add up these interruptions they probably would total about an hour out of your day. Knowing this you should plan your day accordingly, making sure to leave room in your schedule for them. Interruptions, along with Murphy's Law, that says, "Nothing is as easy as it looks. Everything will take longer than you expect. If anything can go wrong it will at the worst possible moment" can throw us into a tizzy if we're not prepared to deal with them.
When you are interrupted take care of the issue at hand and then return immediately to what you had been doing before the interruption. Unless you decide after asking yourself, "Is this the best use of my time?" that doing something else would be a better use of your time. That interruption may be just what you needed to make you realize that what you were doing wasn't as important as another task.
Also, be sure to protect yourself against being interrupted if you must not loose your concentration. Use your answer machine to catch a message when the phone rings, use a secretary or receptionist to screen calls and people from barging in on you, don't answer the door, hang a sign on the door saying, "Do Not Disturb!" or go to the local library to get away from interruptions if what you're working on is portable.
We can't control all interruptions but there are many ways we can, so eliminate the ones within your control and go with the flow regarding the ones out of your control. Don't be frustrated by interruptions but simply remind yourself that they are a part of a "perfectly normal" day!
Judy Warmington, Woman Time Management (owner) -- Busy wife, mother of three adult/married children, grandmother of 10 (5 boys and 5 girls!), former high school teacher (M.A. from W.M.U.), Speaker, Author, Radio Personality, and Trainer of Professional Organizers.
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DEALING WITH INTERRUPTIONS
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