The 3 Types of Interruptions (and How To Handle Them Like A Pro)

How many times do you find yourself behind schedule because you got side tracked by a random text message, email thread, or unexpected phone call that drained all of your energy?  All day long we are being presented with interruptions: phone calls, text messages, push notifications, emails, rogue thoughts, knocks at the door, kids yelling, and your effectiveness in handling them can make or break your long-term productivity.

How effective are you managing interruptions?  Which do you manage well and which interruptions tend to suck you in and tempt you away from whatever you’re aiming to focus on?

If you want to accomplish more while spending less energy, one of the key skills you’re going to need to develop is the skill of handling interruptions. In fact, the ideal orientation is to become un-interruptable. Are you up for the challenge?

Okay, well maybe not totally uninterruptable… In my musings on performance and focus I’ve identified three major types of interruptions. The first two types should be minimized (if not totally removed), and the third type is actually encouraged.

The first of these three categories of interruptions are untimely internal interruptions. Random thoughts that pop into our heads that are important, but not related to the task at hand. For example, as I am writing this article I might have thoughts pop into my head like “I have to return that call I missed from Joe yesterday”, “I still didn’t get a gift for Jill’s birthday”, or “I need to take the chicken out of the freezer.”

Rather than having them interrupt my work flow, the best way I have found to deal with them is to write them down on my to-do list or set a reminder on my phone for later, and then get right back into my work flow as efficiently as possible. 

Now is not the time for taking the chicken out of the freezer, now is writing time. Writing it down will satisfy the part of your mind that’s setting off the mental alarm saying “this matters” without letting it hijack your focus.

The second category of interruptions are external interruptions that aim to pull you away from your agenda, to live by other people’s agendas. These include phone calls, emails, knocks at the door, taps on the shoulder, text messages, phone notifications, etc. 

Many times these can be totally ignored. Other times, if it must be attended to, I will start off immediately by setting a time constraint. For example, “Hey, I’m in the middle of writing an article right now. I just have a minute or two and then I am going to dive back in. Is this important right now or can I call you back later?”

Some good questions to keep in mind when presented with external interruptions:

• Do I need to attend to this at all?
• Must I attend to it now?
• If it needs attention, when would be a more appropriate time for me to handle it?

Your goals are too significant to be squelched away by everyone else’s notifications.  Make a conscious decision to live intentionally.

The final category of interruptions are intentional external interruptions. These are the helpful kind: alarms, timers, or alerts that you set, on purpose, to help you follow through on your priorities.

Examples are things like the timer you set to let you know it’s time to take dinner out of the oven, the alarm you set to leave the house to get to your appointment on time, alerts you set on your phone to tell you you’ve reached your social media limit for the day, or the alarm you set to wake you up in the morning.

These interruptions are different. They exist in service of your goals. They remind you when it’s time to switch gears: when to stop, when to start, when to refocus. The real question is: Do you listen to them?

Managing interruptions is one of the core skills of being sustainably productive over the long run. Until you master it, you cannot yet unlock the ability to step in and out of flow states on command to operate at your best when it’s time to take action.  

You’ll need to have a resilient core to handle whatever unexpected ‘problems’ life throws your way so you can bounce back with persistently and consistently.  You’ll need the skill to seed new habits, to cultivate them to become part of your standard operating system, and the ability to prune off the habits that no longer serve you. 

And you’ll need systems to install regular feedback loops to make sure you are aiming in the right direction, utilizing the most effective strategy, and utilizing your time and energy efficiently so you can complete each day proud of what you’ve accomplished with excess vitality to spare. Want to train these skills with us? That’s exactly what we do inside the Self-Leadership/Coaching Genius Certification + INSIDERS Accelerator.

Interruptions are inevitable, but how you respond to them is a skill to be developed. When you master it you don’t just protect your productivity, you reclaim your focus, your time, and your personal power. When you know how to lead yourself with power you become a force to be reckoned with, even in a world designed to distract you.