Technology TransactionsThe Big Hole In Your Day
We all have 24 hours in a day and 7 days in a week. And if you
multiply that out and my math is correct (I assume it is because
I"ve done this a few times), that gives us a total of 168 hours
per week. And the thing about time is that it can only be spent,
it cannot be saved. (Did you ever have any time left over on
Sunday night that you could lop on over to the following week?)
And there are only two ways to spend time, spend it wisely, or,
well, not so wisely.
The average person is working in excess of 40 hours per week and
I have found that most people lose about 3 hours per day or 15
hours per week in a Black Hole that sucks away and consumes
better than a third of the quantity of time we have available to
be productive in our work.
The Hole? Needless interruptions.
Now an interruption is nothing more than an "unanticipated
event". (That"s what makes it an interruption.) They come to us
in two ways, either in-person or via the telephone. (Telephone
would include all the electronic devices such as fax, email,
beepers, pagers, etc.)
Like everything we encounter, interruptions are both good and
bad. A lot of what you and I do on a daily basis is to address
the "good" interruptions, those that are "crucial" and
"important". Indeed, a lot of what we are paid for is to handle
those "good" interruptions. Those are not the concern.
What takes away from achieving higher levels of productivity are
the "bad" interruptions, those that have "little" or "no" value".
Examples of "good" interruptions are when a client or customer
calls you to place an order, your boss stops by to inform you
that you will be getting the raise, or a co-worker interrupts you
at your desk to show you how to complete a project in less time.
These are all interruptions but they will lead to enhanced
results. They are "good", so very good.
Examples of "bad" interruptions are when a co-worker drops by to
complain about the price of hay in Denmark (assuming that you are
not in that business) or some irrelevant, uninteresting topic or
a telephone solicitor reaches you at work to try to sell you
something you do not need or want.
Here are some interesting statistics. (Your actual mileage may
vary, but if you need something to compare yourself to.). On
average, we experience one interruption every 8 minutes or
approximately 6-7 per hour. In an 8-hour day, that totals around
50-60 interruptions in the day. The average interruption takes
approximately 5 minutes. (Some may take several hours or days;
others may only take a few seconds.) If you are receiving 50
interruptions in the day and each takes 5 minutes, that totals
250 minutes, or just over 4 hours out of 8, or about 50% of the
workday.
Now, if you we were to track and rate each interruption we
experience during the day, (let "A" = Crucial; "B" = Important;
"C" = Little Value; and "D" = "No Value"), most people will
discover that only about 20% of their interruptions are of the
"A" and "B" variety and 80% are of the "C" and "D" variety.
(Maybe you will come out better; I hope so.)
Finally, if you experience 250 minutes of interruptions in your
day and 80% are of the "C" and "D" variety, having "Little" or
"No Value", 80% of 250 is 200 minutes or just over 3 hours per
day going down the drain being consumed by interruptions that are
not worthy of your time.
For most, there is a hole so big in their productive day that
they could drive a truck through it.
Also See:
"Time Block" Your Way to Success
Take "I Don"t Have Time" Out of Your Vocabulary
Ten Commandments of Real Estate Time Management