If you’re a business owner or leader, you are likely experiencing a chronic case of constant interruption. Phone calls, Teams pings, meetings, email pile-up, and mid-hallway stops by your team asking “what about this?”
Studies show that it takes your brain 25 minutes to return to a task once it has been interrupted. It’s also well-established that task switching increases cognitive load, and thus “multi-tasking” means, in general, doing many things in a sub-standard way. Of course, you know that guy that can sit in his office and field three phone calls, answer emails, and talk about X project all at the same time. If he’s efficiently productive, he’s an exception to the rule. And it’s probable that he’s not nearly as efficient as he could be.
That’s fine, you say, but running a business requires wearing a thousand hats, sometimes at the same time. That’s true, but you should be working toward more efficiency in any case.
Below are some tips for what YOU should do personally to reduce those distractions. In addition, there are two important approaches your business itself needs to help you free up your focus.
Personal Tactics
Batch Tasks
One seemingly minor way to help reduce cognitive load is to batch similar tasks together. For example, instead of constantly checking and replying to email, maybe set aside certain times of the day to do that. Of course, this may not be possible presently for your position, but consider other ways to apply the batching principle: it takes less cognitive load to complete tasks in the same “area” than constantly switching the subject.
Time Blocks
In a similar vein, block off time for yourself for specific tasks, especially tasks that require significant attention to detail or long-range planning. Don’t let “fires” intrude on these blocks, either. Sure, there may be true emergency situations or cases where you really are needed. But ideally, you should be able to focus on big-picture projects, plans, and strategies without always being pulled into the day-to-day demands.
Be Hard to Reach (at times)
As part of this personal approach, make yourself hard to reach at certain and predictable times. This will be hard to do at first as you implement some of these tactics. But over time, your team will learn that 2-3:30 on Wednesday afternoons (for example) is a do-not-disturb time, unless in a real emergency. These blocks should be your most effective strategizing time for your business. It’s possible that your team may get frustrated at first, but remember that 1.5 hrs isn’t R and R time. It’s where you are considering how to grow your business for yourself and your team.
Organization Tactics
Establish clear processes (for those tasks that keep interrupting you)
On a broader scale that your overall business should be working on, you’ll need to write down and publish processes for those tasks which keep distracting you. If you don’t have any written processes, this would be an excellent way to start. If you do have processes written down, it’s possible you may need to revise and edit the process or the responsible party if you continue to be disturbed by tasks you think should already be covered. In any case, consider the two or three processes which would cover the bulk of those distractions and start there.
Strengthen your Management Layer
Finally, it’s possible that your issue is a missing management layer in your business. You are the man for everything that happens, and few others have the institutional knowledge and skills you have. Developing this management layer is easier said than done because it may require, ya know, paying someone to do this. But at first, decide if SOME of what you are doing can or should be done by someone else in the organization. Look for smaller, low impact decisions that keep coming in front of you. Delegate those to someone else. Maybe you should trust some team leaders with decisions you’ve been making so that you can focus on growth and long-term strategy. Sometimes, leaders think they will be respected if the whole team sees them completing the same nitty-gritty details as everyone else. In reality, you can’t worry about what your team “sees” you doing – if you want your business to be successful (and for that “rising tide to lift all boats”), then you need the time and focus to do those unsee, unglamorous things that bring about business growth.
Conclusion
The reality is that interruptions come with the territory. Running a business means wearing many hats, and there will always be phone calls to answer, questions to resolve, and fires that need to be put out. The goal isn’t to eliminate interruptions entirely. It’s to reduce the unnecessary ones.
Many business owners feel guilty when they aren’t constantly “doing.” They think leadership means being available to everyone at all times and jumping into every problem that comes along. But the truth is that some of the most valuable work you do isn’t visible. It’s planning. It’s thinking. It’s evaluating. It’s building systems. It’s developing people. It’s making decisions today that will affect where the company is two years from now.
Your team doesn’t necessarily need to see you with a shovel in your hand every minute of the day. Sometimes, like an officer planning tomorrow’s movement while others dig foxholes, your responsibility is to step away from the urgent so you can focus on the important.
The growth of your business depends on more than hard work. It depends on your ability to protect your time, delegate wisely, and focus on the things that only you can do.