What’s on the iPod: Medicine by We Were Promised Jetpacks
TGIF, Amen, Alleluia.
I don’t know if I can keep up this pace. I had a good deal of work to do yesterday despite thinking I would finish the article in front of me. Instead, I wrote another one, conducted an interview, scheduled another one, arranged a webinar guest, gathered email interview info for yet another article, sent over questions to another interview subject for yet one more article, and ran to Staples for more ink for the printer.
Today looks pretty much the same. I’m not herding cats — I’m juggling them.
One of the things I fend off on a typical day is a slew of phone calls. Most of them are sales calls (no message is a clear indicator, as is a quick Internet search), but occasionally someone I know will call and want to chat. If it’s family like my mother or my sister and I can’t talk, I pick up and tell them so just in case it’s something important. All others go to voice mail.
I have one friend in particular who works a 9-to-5 and is in the habit of calling me whenever she has a day off or a few hours at home. The calls come in whenever the mood strikes her. I’d love to say that I’m flattered she wants to talk to me, but I’m not. I really, really don’t like the assumption that because I work from home, I have ample time to chat. It’s not an assumption I’ve fueled, either. In all the time I’ve known her to call me like this, I’ve actually answered her call once, and that was because I wasn’t working that day.
Worse, she and I have talked (at my prompting) before about people assuming I’m free because I work from home and how much I dislike that assumption. And yet, there’s that phone ringing.
There are a few people whose calls get answered no matter what — family mostly. Very few beyond that are answered every time. I have close writer friends who will call, and if I can, sure. I’ll talk. If not, they understand the call won’t be answered and why. Why do I answer those calls instead of my chatty friend’s call? Because writers respect the boundaries on our time much more than people who aren’t writers do. And they know that if it’s going to voice mail, I’m super busy or not around, and they won’t call six more times just to make sure I heard the phone.
It’s why of the three phones in the house, only one has the ringer turned on.
Interruptions can suck up a ton of work hours if you don’t put some boundaries in place and actually enforce them. Here are mine:
No conversations or favors during work hours. I’ve been known to threaten bodily harm to children wanting rides, favors, or just wanting to talk. Even coming in to say “Hi, what’s up?” can throw off my concentration and cause a 15-minute distraction. If they want me, they can talk to me when I emerge from Mission Control (a.k.a. the study). And that means no rides to the mechanic’s or train station unless I have free time and willingly volunteer it.
No phone calls. I’ve let my daughter’s calls go to voice mail because she’s what’s known as a Serial Caller. Her M.O. — leave the house and five minutes later, call me to ask me something like “Can we go on a cruise sometime?” Seriously, if I could have reached through that phone…. When the threats no longer worked, I simply stopped answering. If she’s in trouble, the cops can leave a message. 😉
No requests for help. I don’t care if you have your car up on ramps and you need someone to help you get that bolt loosened on the oil pan — it’s not happening during my work hours. Nor will I pick up laundry at the dry cleaners, mow the grass before it rains (unless it’s a foot high and we’re expecting a monsoon), plan vacations, or perform any other errand that I’m not compensated for. If they need me to be their personal assistant, I’m going to charge them for it.
No Internet searches. My mother is extremely guilty of this. She’ll call to have me look something up for her. I’ve trained her to call before 9 am with these requests, so it’s not as disruptive as it used to be, but if she wants to know where her auction is and it’s in the middle of the day, either she’s missing an auction or she’s waiting until I have time. I’d get her a computer, but then the phone calls would triple in frequency and would be of the “How do I work this?” variety.
No games until break time. This rule is meant for me. No Spider Solitaire or Bejeweled Blitz until break time. And no Facebook after 9 am and until I get a project finished or in decent enough shape to take a short break.
How do you curb the interruptions? How many hours do you think you save by enforcing your boundaries?
Try living with the mother.:-)
I have! And I feel your pain. 🙂
I hate the phone, and my phone is almost always off anyway. I sometimes forget to turn it on for days.
I don't play computer games.
I definitely save at least half my work day by holding firm on boundaries.
I don't answer calls from friends as a rule. After more than 5 years I get it that they won't ever "get it."
I am also careful to stress that I work when people start treading into favor territory.
One close friend mentioned that he was asked to work late but couldn't since he had to get his daughter from day care. His words: "I thought about calling you since you're home all day anyway." I made it clear this would only be acceptable in a dire emergency!
Lori, your friend who calls on her days off sounds like one of my friend who totally ignores me 50 weeks of the year, but when she's on her summer vacation she calls all the time. Why? She's bored. Last year she even dropped over one day – unannounced during working hours – just to chat. I gave her five minutes and send her packing. What did she want to talk about? She wanted me to go on a day trip with her that week. I told her that was impossible since it was a WORK day and I'd need advance warning to clear my schedule. (That said, I had next to nothing to work on, but I didn't feel like being stuck in a car with her yapping all day about herself.)
Two weeks ago my sister and I had an interesting experience when she was here to pick up her dogs and decided to work from here that day. We both holed up in adjoining rooms and work at our respective computers. She had more phone calls than I did. Every so often one of us would get up to stretch or get some tea, and the other knew it was okay to talk. A quick break, then back to work.
I don't play computer games, don't do Facebook. I know I spend a little too much time checking Twitter and blogs (ahem), but I try to keep that in check. Skim through tweets in the morning, then check every so often. Funny how when I'm on deadline I don't even think about Twitter.
I'm not a phone lover either, Devon. It's become more of an annoyance than a business tool.
Oh Krista, you've hit on a HUGE peeve of mine, too! Hate the favor. The favor has become the bane of my existence. I'm tired of the assumption (and yes, the family does this) that my time isn't as structured, so I'm the one to ask for help. I remember threatening to get a "real" job a few years ago because I was tired of them assuming I would just drop everything and run to help them. I was even accused of not being very helpful. Damn right I'm not — not when I'm supposed to be earning money. If you pay me, I'll haul your asses around all day! Otherwise, shut the study door on the way out. LOL
Paula, it's true. "I want to play!" needs to be scheduled. I love that you and your sister were so respectful of each others' time. That's how it is when one business owner works alongside another. We just "get" it.
Like Devon I tend to turn my phone off, except the last few weeks I've had an ongoing, slow moving family situation that has left the phone on in case, which means calls get through.
Same thing with email… much of the communication re this family situation is via email and I won't walk away from it… so it's been a distraction.
I guess the way to say it is my boundaries are firm except when they're not… and I live alone with two cats… should be easy, and most of the time it is.
I think I've been fortunate to be very efficient my entire career — by accident. Being deaf requires using the relay service to make phone calls. So people learned to email me instead. Because of this, I worked uninterrupted, thus finishing on time most days.
Still I can relate to this, Lori — from the days when I used to have Chat (Trillian) running. My family, a friend like your friend — kept interrupting. That's how I knew "no phone calls" made a difference. I stopped using Trillian. I couldn't shut off chat because my husband needs to be able to reach me.
So I switched to a lesser use service. It's worked well.
Lori, I think one reason my sister chose to work here that day is because her husband is a professor – he's on summer vacation and sometimes forgets she's not. (By the end of summer he'll be used to it.)
Meryl, there's always one person who doesn't get the "no chat" boundary. You were smart to use a different program to talk to your husband — makes it easier to ignore the ones who don't respect your time.
Paula, not surprised. Family can be the largest distractions. 🙂