Robin Madell * shares three tips for preventing interruptions when working from home
Working from home gets a bad rap when it comes to interruptions, with the often erroneous assumption that the personal and professional conflict with each other in a remote environment.
Everyone is well aware of the many situations that can infringe upon your undivided attention when working in person with colleagues as well—from chatty coworkers who don’t seem to notice that you’re heads-down with a project to bosses who drop by unannounced throughout the day regardless of your impending deadlines.
But the fact is, no matter where you work—from home, in-office, or hybrid—there are bound to be interruptions.
How to prevent interruptions at work
While the types of disturbances that may infringe upon your mental focus are different in a company than in your home office, having a go-to set of strategies to help stop interruptions at work can save your productivity and your sanity.
Here are three ways to protect yourself from the annoyance of anything that takes you away from whatever you’re trying to hone in on at work.
Scope out a “sequester space”
If you’re back in the office and finding it hard to get a minute to think amid all the requests and chatter, then start by looking for a place around you that’s more immune to intrusion—a “sequester space” where you can hole up for a while to do better work.
This strategy can be particularly important in an open-office layout or cubicle setup, where there’s little or no barrier between you and your colleagues to help create a quiet workspace.
For in-office workers, your sequester space might be:
- An empty conference room that you book to work on a project requiring intense focus
- A doored office of a colleague who is working from home/out of the office (just ask first!)
- A bench or table outside on company grounds where you can get away from the activity around your desk
If you’re working from home but have children, other family members, or roommates around, you can still seek a sequester space.
For example, if your work area at home lacks the boundary of a door since you’re camped out at the kitchen table or sofa, then claim a corner of a bedroom, patio, or backyard by setting up a folding table and chairs to give yourself a quieter place to sequester.
The key to success for your sequester space is to ensure that you’ve informed your colleagues and/or those you live with about your plan, so that there are no surprises.
If coworkers and family members know about your sequester space, then they can help support you by respecting the area you’ve commandeered.
Send a visual signal
In some workplace settings, you may not always be able to snag a sequester space.
In those cases, it’s helpful to alert others with a visual signal about your desire to avoid interruptions.
A good visual signal can head off many would-be interrupters at the pass once they’ve noticed your eye-catching hint.
If your work area is out in the open, whether at home or in a company setting, then visual signals can be an essential way to safeguard your focus and avoid constant comments or shoulder taps from others.
Two of the most effective visual signals that communicate “please don’t interrupt me” are:
- Headphones or earbuds: You can wear headphones even if you aren’t listening to any music; simply having something over (or in) your ears lets people know you are busy.
- A sign on the back of your chair, wall, or entrance to your workspace: Try taping a “do not disturb unless it’s an emergency” sign in a prominent place where you’re working.
If someone who’s approaching you sees your sign, hopefully they will respect the sentiment and keep walking, rather than try to get your attention.
Communicate clearly about your boundaries
The culture of your company and even your home life can set the tone for how comfortable people feel interrupting one another when they’re working.
If the culture of your workplace—or expectations in your household—reflect an environment in which it’s okay to talk to each other any time, regardless of what’s going on with an individual’s workload, then it’s likely that you’ll experience frequent interruptions.
The way around this is to make sure to tell those who work with and around you that you’re engaged in something that requires no interruptions.
Be clear about your needs and boundaries.
For example, let others know in advance what hours you will need them to leave you in peace.
You can communicate this information verbally—ideally the evening before it’s needed.
Or, if it’s hard to relay the news to everyone at once due to conflicting schedules, use team or family calendars strategically to announce your “no interruption” work periods, blocking off stretches of time for focused, uninterrupted projects.
Stop to start
Getting creative about carving out quiet spaces, using visual cues to stop interrupters before they derail you, and committing to clear communication about your boundaries can help ensure smoother workflow.
Regardless of where you work, interruptions aren’t a given—as long as you take the right steps to prevent them.
*Robin Madell is a contributor to the On Careers section of U.S. News & World Report and serves as a copywriter, speechwriter, and ghostwriter. She is the author of Surviving Your Thirties: Americans Talk About Life After 30 and co-author of The Strong Principles: Career Success.
This article first appeared at flexjobs.com
