How To Conquer The "Time Robber" In The Office

My office used to be a "compartment farm" layout, which was noisy and distracting.

Recently, we moved to another open layout office where there was no partition between the workplaces.

The open layout should make teamwork easier to achieve, but some people seem to think that this means that they can disturb other colleagues at any time with silly little questions or the latest office gossip.

The problem is that with the continuous bombardment of e-mail, text and cell phone messages, and now the emergence of human interference, it is almost impossible to concentrate on working for one or two minutes.

I like my boss very much, but he seems to be the biggest source of interference.

He would come to my desk for five or six trips every day, in his own words, even if it was "reported to arrive".

I want to make others (especially the boss) interesting and not rude at the same time.

Do you have any good suggestions for it? -- a person who can not do anything about it.

Dear helpless person, you are not the first person to feel headache for such a thing.

According to the 2014 Deloitte Consulting, the trend of human capital in 2014 shows that nearly 70% of senior managers believe that employees who are overwhelmed by information and interference all day long are "urgent" or "very important" factors that drag the production efficiency.

The survey was conducted by over 2500 managers in 90 countries. The research report claims that only about 4% of the companies have issued simple policies or solutions to solve this problem so far.

Since your boss is not in the 4% place, you can only rely on yourself to solve the problem.

"When someone calls or walks around and says," can you occupy a minute? "Everything seems reasonable," said Ed Brown, the author of the upcoming "conquest time Robber: The Time Bandit Solution: Recovering Stolen Time You Never Knew You You".

"But once the idea is interrupted, it's hard for you to find it again.

Usually, you have to start from scratch.

This is not only a huge waste of time, but even more pressure. "

Brown is the co founder of Cohen Brown Management Group, which has been providing time management consulting services to clients engaged in financial services such as Merrill Lynch (Merrill Lynch), Citibank (Citibank) and Prudential Insurance (Prudential). (Brown)

Brown said that in many large companies, people spend 40% to 60% of their work time slowly dissipated in distractions, especially from colleagues.

He will do this.

It's called "time robber".

According to Brown's observation, "the boss is usually the worst offender, because as an employee, you will feel unable to refuse to speak."

Maybe it's okay to refuse.

We can assume that most, if not all, colleagues want to reduce distractions.

Therefore, Brown suggested that we should unite and agree on a system he called "time lock".

That is to say, a specific number of hours per day is defined as a special time period (for example, from two to four points).

During this period, you can devote yourself to your work.

Brown acknowledges that there is a need for some consultations for everyone to agree with this approach.

But he believes that persuading colleagues to make a "do not disturb" schedule is usually "a simple thing that can benefit all people."

He found that some teams and departments have tasted the sweetness after one or two weeks of trial: the efficiency is greatly improved, and the number of employees who are overwhelmed with burden is less.

So they turned the "time lock" system into a system.

In addition, Brown also believes that

Put your mind on the job and persuade him to limit his "report" times, "it's not as big a risk as people think.

The key is to emphasize that if I can devote myself to work in a specific period of time, I will be more efficient.

This is also good for your boss to catch up with the deadline.

"Time lock" system is definitely the gospel of managers, because no matter whether it can be understood or not, the people who ultimately pay for the interference caused by them are still bosses.

What if the boss doesn't listen to advice? It's the turn of the alternatives.

The book "thief" is described in detail.

In fact, it sums up the idea of negotiating a time for gathering and communicating after completing the task at hand.

Brown's subordinates are all faithful followers of "time lock". They often make such an appointment with Brown to sit down to talk: "before four o'clock, I have to work around a certain project.

How about if I call you again at four? "As a manager, it would be foolish to destroy the efficiency of the staff at this time.

Perhaps this is true, but Brown also admitted that he had witnessed some bosses who could not, or would not like to put down their shelves, to truly respect the "time lock" system.

If your boss is such a person, "unless you don't live on this salary, you can only throw away your work and then honestly say," what can I do for you? "

Again, controlling your time may mean that you have to change your habits.

The DDT consulting company's research shows that the average attention span of business people today is about 7 minutes - partly because they check their phones almost 150 times a day.

If you decide to try Brown's plan to eliminate distraction, when you are in a time slot of "time lock", you might as well turn off your cell phone.

Such a practice is worth a try.