Hello and welcome to this week's short time management tip that reveals How to cut your interruptions in half..

It will take you only 52 seconds to read this email. Here is your time creation tip for this week.

Time Management Tip

How to reduce distractions by 57%.

"I can't believe how different I feel" Peter thought to himself as he watched his team member leave his office.

I introduced you to Peter in the last edition. Peter was struggling to spend any time on his 2011 goals and he seemed so buried in work he felt he was getting further behind each day.

I got Peter to ask himself some questions about his goals and this completely changed his focus. Peter let go of several of his goals and decided to focus his attention on what was most important to him.

With the weight off his shoulders Peter felt energized as he approached his biggest challenge at work -- interruptions. Peter estimated over 70% of his day was taken up with interruptions.

Initially Peter took offense at my suggestion.

I suggested to Peter that he was the cause of most of his interruptions. He thought I was crazy and didn't understand his work situation. As we talked he started to change his mind and eventually he had a BFO (Blinding Flash of the Obvious).

See for yourself. Do you: Answer all or most phone calls? Read emails as they come in constantly during the day? Have an open door policy any day any time? Spend time on interruptions without qualifying their importance? Give answers to people who interrupt you (by phone or in person)? End up with more work after the interruption?

The biggest causes of interruptions are the last two!!!

When you give answers and take on tasks you encourage people to interrupt you. The more answers you give and the more you take on the more interruptions you will get.

Ask questions and create accountability instead.

That's what Peter started to do. Rather than give answers he asked questions, starting with the most powerful one "What do you think you should do?" Now Peter's team realized they had to think for themselves when they came to Peter.

When they came up with the answers Peter encouraged them to take the action they suggested (sometimes with some guidance). So who walked out the door with the next task? Peter's team member. And this is where we started -- Peter was watching his team member leave his office after one of these discussions.

"I can't believe how different I feel," Peter thought to himself as he sat relaxed in his office. He had cut his interruptions by more than half and at the end of each day he felt he had achieved progress to achieve his objectives. And his stress levels were way down.

Give it a go and let me know if this works just as well for you.

Have the time of your life this week.

Michael

Michael Erwin https://www.time-management-central.net

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