How to Close the Door and Do the Hard Work
It Starts With Activating Your ‘Do Not Disturb’ Sign
Typing furiously in his cubicle, the man had his back turned to the entrance. Headphones on listening to music, cup of coffee beside him, and no way for anyone to catch his eye. He had tuned out the rest of his office in order to get the work done. The vision of a clearly closed off person. And yet, someone looks over his shoulder and then raps on the desk.
“Yes.”
“Do you have a minute? I have a really quick question?” says the cubicle intruder. While the man takes his headphones off and looks at his work he so wishes to complete right that moment.
“Sure, what do you need,” he says reluctantly, yet kindly.
The intruder advances further into the cubicle and holds up a file. He then launches into a fifteen minute discourse which only had to do with about five minutes of work. Once the conversation was completed, the first man turns back to his work.
Before he begins, he writes “Do Not Disturb” onto a sticky note and posts it on the edge of his cubicle. Then he goes back to his headphones, which aren’t plugged in, and the work he so desperately wishes to complete.
Anyone who has ever worked in an office setting has experienced this before. Sometimes it isn’t a big deal. We might be ahead on our work or in a really good place. Other times, we might be behind and this is a huge interruption. Nonetheless, it breaks into our very productive day.
While we can only do so much to curb our distractions, these interruptions still throw us for a loop in the day. And while we can have tips and tricks for getting back to work, there is still the break in the important or hard work we were doing.
How can we avoid these interruptions?
First, I want to note one thing: We all have interruptions and we cannot shut out the world the entire time we are working hard.
That being said, we can set up very specific times for us to avoid and stop the invasions of the hardest or most important work we are doing. I am speaking out of my very personal, very specific experience. I am the first to offer help when someone needs help. But sometimes, I just need some really focused time.
When that happens, the sticky notes comes out.
Do Not Disturb
There are times when I need to sit down and power through some difficult work. I pull out a sticky note that says: “Do Not Disturb” And then, I turn my work messenger to the same setting and I sit down to do the difficult work. The difficult work consists of three types of work:
- Hard Work
- Important Work
- Time Sensitive Work
Why do we need to focus on these times? These are the times when we either don’t want to do specific work, or we need to do specific work. Typically, if there is something we know is hard we will put it off or try and avoid it. When there is something important or time sensitive, it always seems to get distracted.
This is when we need to tell people to leave us alone.
What do we do when people don’t get the message?
This happens a lot too. Someone just seems to power through our warning signs and still comes knocking. Either they are blind to our sticky note or they just don’t care. Nonetheless, they still come walking into our space.
What do we do?
We need to respond in a professional and kind manner. And this is when I like to use a quick, canned sentence or two when someone comes in and asks me a questions.
“Hey *name of person asking question*, I know this is important to you right now, but I am right in the middle of something. Can I come back to help in an hour?”
There are a few keys to what I said:
- I acknowledge the person and their problem as important. No one wants to feel like what they have asked is dumb or unimportant. When you let them know you think it is important to, it sets them up for the next part.
- I advise I am in the middle of something equally important. While I have acknowledged their important thing, I also want to make sure they understand I am doing important work too.
- I answer a question with a question. Asking if I can circle back around with them shows I care and that I want to help. But I can’t do it right now. And while some folks with just ask someone else, others will wait.
A Closed Door Doesn’t Have to be Locked
When we close ourselves off in our workspace, we don’t need to be rude or crazy about how we show it. We just need to make sure people can see we are not available in the moment. It is equally important to become available after you get through the difficult work.
It shows people you have times when you will not be available and times when you will be. This makes it easier for them to approach you in the best moments. And it allows you to keep your productivity flowing at work.
This has been part of an ongoing series of posts about productivity. Over the last few months, I have been sharing 21 Productivity Tools to help you be more productive and create more margin in life. If you have missed a previous post, check out this series:
If you would like to learn more about my writing, feel free to hop over to my blog. I believe everyone can live an intentional life by finding purpose, creating direction and taking action. Learn more at jrheimbigner.com.