Right now there’s a fuzzy black spider roaming across the top of my desk hutch and along the edge of my fax machine. I’m watching him with a sense of curiosity and comraderie–the spider knows I’m here and I know he’s here, yet we’ve decided to go about our business despite all that.

Sometimes, things like spiders (and in his case, humans) come along and draw your attention elsewhere. They pose some sort of threat to your routine, but only if you allow it. Such is the case with new projects or “emergency” client issues. You’re tooling along on the project in front of you when something appears over the edge of your horizon (or comes barging in via phone or email) and it demands your attention. Yet you’ve got a good head of steam going on your current project. What do you do?

For me, it’s simple. I go about my business. I do open the emails and look, and I hit the answering machine button and listen. If it’s truly urgent, I dash a note back and arrange to talk whenever I’m done with my current thought or deadline. If it’s a “we need it as the printer is holding up production” issue, I drop what I’m doing, if possible, and help. Some problems are five-minute fixes. Some are not.

Organization of your workload is a dicey area. If you’re good at it, these little interruptions shouldn’t even register on your radar. If you’re not, you could find yourself sucked into something that threatens your original project deadline. If you get sucked into emergencies by the same client all too often, it’s possible you’ve sent the signal that you’re always able to drop what you’re doing. If so, you need a new approach. Next crisis, try responding thusly: “Glad to hear from you. I’m happy to drop what I’m doing and help, but because I’ve been inundated with rush jobs of late, I’ve added a surcharge to my fee for rush projects. I can do it for XX dollars plus the surcharge of YY dollars. Let me know your thoughts and your timeline for this.”

Chances are the emergency will suddenly clear up, and like the spider, you and your client will regard each other with a bit more caution and respect.