Nov 17 2006
Some Thoughts On Interruptions And Feeding Monkeys
I have been juggling a number of projects this week and I also inherited a few monkeys, which is so unlike me as I am pretty assertive most of the time. It is always interesting to analyse one’s time robbers on a regular basis to see if there is a pattern and if there is, take steps to deal with them.
Where Do Interruptions Come From?
Boss
• Who often has the power when it comes to setting priorities
Subordinates
• The more accessible you are, the more they’ll use/abuse you
Fellow workers
• Interrupt for many reasons, from social to work-related
Clients and customers
• These you can’t ignore
Phone
• Sound familiar?
Dealing With Interruptions:
When you’re interrupted, ask yourself what’s more important: the interruption or what you’re working on? You can keep a ‘To Do’ list to re-focus on what you should be doing after the interruption has gone away.
What you can also do is try to keep interruptions short – ‘What do you want, why, when, etc?’ You can also keep a log of who/what interrupts you: a pattern may emerge.
If you want to be really accurate about who or what is robbing your time on a regular basis, you will find my article: How To Identify And Banish Your Time Robbers helpful.
You should also consider the following – they work for me!:
• Be assertive; learn to deal with ‘Have you got a minute?’
• Invent deadlines
• Continue to look busy
• Stand up to interruptions
• Remove the chair in front of your desk
• Reduce eye contact
• Collect your papers, check your watch
• Go to them – this way you can leave any time
• Learn to say ‘no’
• Plan a quiet hour
And Finally – Beware Of Monkeys:
Despite being a busy person, it is easy to get sucked into doing things for others.
Often these tasks have nothing to do with your job (perhaps they interest you or you are flattered to be asked!).
Each time we say ‘yes’ to these requests we collect another ‘monkey’, namely a problem that started with someone else (who is working for whom?).
Furthermore, ‘monkeys’ eat into our discretionary time; the amount of time left after meeting the demands of boss and job.
‘Taking the monkey’ often means that you are taking on a problem. Also, you are preventing others from taking the initiative and dealing with it themselves.
So, to handle monkeys:
• Deal with them as they happen (say ‘yes’, you can help or ‘no’, you cannot).
• Do not allow them to become too many to handle.
• Feed them face-to-face only or by phone (avoid memos or email).
• Feed them by appointment only; ‘Come and see me at …’
• Assign a next feeding time; ‘Try, and if you get a problem come back and see me’.
TIP: Never say ‘Leave it with me’.
I have received some excellent feedback on the latest newsletter; thank you again to everyone who took the time to e-mail me.
New articles appear today on both my personal site and The jfa Group site: The topics this week are: “Professional Presentations” and “Customer Care & Customer Retention” All extremely readable as usual – as I am bound to say!
You will also see that the Article Vault is featured, to mark the fact that it now contains more than 100 articles in three categories: Sales & Sales Management, Leadership and Self-Improvement – well worth a visit.
Early in 2007, I will be adding a sales process section packed with downloadable tools covering everything from pipeline development to forecasting and opportunity assessment to activity management, so watch this space.
Finally, my recommendation of the week is: The Sales Vault - www.salesvault.com.
The site is owned by Slife Sales Training Inc and contains a treasure chest of articles, training tools, teleseminars, in fact, I think it must be one of the best specialist sales related sites on the internet.
The sister site is: www.salestrainingcamp.com and Daphne Slife also publishes three newsletters - “The Closer”, “The Sales Trainer”, and “Manager’s Minute”
Do take a look; I know you will be as impressed as I am.
OK, well as usual, have a great weekend and do look out for monkeys! - JF
