Preventing Self-Interruption With Karen Tiber Leland

Today, I want to talk about something called self-interruption. A few of the most common ways we see it happen is when we’re working on a project and we suddenly remember an item to add to our to-do list, when an idea pops into our head and on our way to write it down we fall into the social media or Internet link-jumping rabbit hole.

 

When you work in an office, other people can also interrupt you and this still may be a problem when you work from home as kids, friends, partners, and even pets can easily barge into our offices and provide sources of distraction.

 

According to a study, 40% of the time when we’re interrupted we don’t return to the original task and instead wander off in a new direction. For the sake of productivity in these challenging times, I wanted to provide listeners with four easy tips to avoid self-interruption.

Four Tips to stay focused and on task

 

Block out your calendar to focus on a particular project — 20 to 45 minutes are usually optimal.

 

Time yourself — if your ability to focus has diminished, timer apps help keep you focused on one thing at a time.

 

Keep pen and paper at the ready — when the idea pops in, you don’t want to have to think about it and it’s important to try to steer clear of electronic devices which can lead to more distractions.

 

Do your hardest task later in the day — a recent study showed that contrary to popular belief, self-interruptions tend to diminish as the day progresses.

About Karen Tiber Leland

 

Karen Tiber Leland is the founder of Sterling Marketing Group, a branding, marketing, and color strategy and implementation firm helping CEOs, executives, and entrepreneurs develop stronger personal, business, and team brands. Her clients include Cisco, American Express, Marriott Hotels, Apple Computer, LinkedIn, and Twitter.

 

She is also the best-selling author of nine traditionally-published business books that have sold over 400,000 copies and been translated into 10 languages. Her most recent book is The Brand Mapping Strategy: Design, Build and Accelerate Your Brand. She regularly writes for Inc.com and Entrepreneur.com and has had articles published in Self, The Los Angeles Times, American Way, The Boston Globe, and many others.

 

Karen has spoken for Harvard, The AMA, Direct Marketing Association, and Stanford, among others. She has been interviewed on The Today Show, CNN, CNBC, and Oprah.

 

Get in touch with Karen on Twitter | LinkedIn | Instagram | Facebook

 

Resources

 

My 10th book — No Nonsense: Time Management: 50 Tips to Hack Your Time and Get Everything Done — will be out on December 31st through Career Press and is very related to this topic of self-interruption. It’s a very practical book about how to get time management handled in this current and contemporary age, especially working from home.