How Deal Interruptions Log Can Quicken Success

I came across this time management sheet. I suspect it is not widely used. Yet I feel there might be a little something in this from a selling angle.

An interruptions log as presented above appears simply a way of tracking what sends you off-course during a day. The aim being to then better manage the deadly ones, patterns, repeat offenders that must be squashed.

With an interesting aside on the urgent/important axis known to anyone that’s ever sat through a ‘personal productivity’ course or ‘prioritising’ session.

Given the “stats” on how long the typical ‘knowledge worker’ gets to plough on interruption-free tend to report a frighteningly short length, coupled with the conundrum of when does an interruption actually represent something that’s part of the job itself, further complicated by the constant ping of inbound messages, you can sense enthusiasm for such recording is not strong.

Can we though work with a prospect to pull out what ‘interruptions’ crop up in their offices to slow their ambitions?

We can’t expect them to keep such a checklist. But we can talk to them about what happens in their daily routines to hold them back.

Just as there are subsections of this theme (think the suggested “4 Ds” of reducing email stress; delete-do-delegate-defer) then there are the interruptions of whose presence we ought recognise as being fundamental to our cause.

It strikes me that citing such a Time Mgmt discipline and using the very term “interruptions” – as opposed to the traditional language citing the likes of ‘frustrations’, ‘bottlenecks’ and ‘problems’ – may well rather be a light and gentle way of framing the issue. One that uncovers an area you happily remedy.