Ann Rusnak has released ‘Focus on Success’ June 13 issue 23. Read Ann Rusnak’s article titled “Dealing With Interuptions”


Ann Rusnak has released ‘Focus on Success’ June 13 issue 23.

Contents

The contents of the Newsletter are:

– Feature Article: Dealing With Interuptions

– Timely Snippets: A Great Time Saving Tool

– Upcoming Events: Our Next Elite Success Team Starts June 15 9:00 am EDT

– Weekly Time Technique: Keeping Spontaneity

Article

Ann Rusnak’s article is reprinted here.

Dealing With Interuptions
Questions: How do I keep everyone out of my office? I Never get things finished, too many interruptions. Summer holidays are coming up; the kids will be home from school, so it will be another challenge and less time for work.

Answer:
This week’s question is a combination of questions received, all dealing with getting interrupted. An interruption is an unscheduled event or something that refocuses your attention from what you’re currently doing to something else. They throw any time management plan off track and productive day. A step to managing your time can start with dealing with interruptions

The two major causes of interruptions: disorganization and people. Last month, I did a series called “Tackling the Clutter Monster” that offered a few suggestions on organizing your environment. Today’s questions address the people interruption. Some of the very reasons why you choose to run a home office becomes a major source of not getting anything done.

Time Management and Summer Interruptions

Summer causes a natural slowness in many businesses. Unless your business thrives in the summer months, why not take advantage of this natural cycle. Summer is a good time to take assessment of the past six months and make some midcourse corrections.

Let’s get realist about the fact that kids home from school may take away hours once devoted to business. Their ages will determine the demand they put on your schedule. You can also give your kids “summer jobs” doing things for your business.

Establish summer business hours. Start later and or close sooner. The last thing I wanted to do was work my “normal” business schedule during the summer. Summer is too short here in Cleveland, Ohio to spend it all day cooped up in the office. My daughter and I would spend much of the morning together at the zoo or head down to University Circle and hang out a variety of museums.

Take your office outside. Put together a portable “mini-office” that can travel to the pool, park, or the backyard deck. You can get some work done while the kids are playing. Even though Allyce is away at college now, I still head outside with my portable office.

Don’t fight the changes that summer causes in your normal business routine, but rather work with them to your advantage. However, you still need to maintain your business or summer interruptions will cause the momentum to stop. While you may work less business hours, make those business hours really work for you.

You will need dedicated office time without any interruptions, regardless of the season.

Keeping Interruptions Out of Your Office

You need to get tough about your office space especially during the summer. If you lay the ground rules now, maintaining them throughout the year will be easier.

First, you need to respect your time. Treat it like your most valuable asset. Until you respect your time, nobody else will either. I mentioned above the need to establish set business hours. Those business hours set an “invisible” boundary between home space and office space.

Try to choose a room with a door for your office. Put your office hours on the door. Close the door when you work on your identified high profit actions. Not all homes offer the luxury of an extra room for the office.

When I first started my business, the office was in an open area that naturally invited interruptions. I printed a sign with my business hours and another with “Mom at Work.” When the Mom at Work sign showed up on the desk, it meant “don’t even think about coming into the office space, talk to me etc”. In other words, “Don’t Disturb” me.

Even though my office now has a door, sharing the space with hubby presents a new set of “interrupting” challenges. We came up with non-verbal ways of letting each other know not to disturb while working. I use the “brain” stress reliever toy. If my “brain” is sitting on the desk corner, it means don’t talk or ask questions etc.

You may need to hire a babysitter for a few hours to watch the children so you can devote a few “concentrated” hours on high profit activities. For older children, look into some type of day camp. Allyce plays cello and loved going to the Cleveland Music School Settlements’ summer music camp.

If you know another home office person with children, you can do a “swap” watch. Once a week, agree to watch each other’s children for a couple hours. This will give both of you at least a couple hours of total uninterrupted time each week.

Treat your business seriously. If you treat your business like a hobby, so will your family. Your family will take clues from you on how to react and behave about your home office business. It will take some training, but let your family know the consequence of the lost money they cause every time they interrupt you. And don’t forget to also let them know when they experience the benefits that resulted from the uninterrupted time.

http://www.Focus20SuccessClub.com/success

Ann Rusnak, “The Time Diva” developed a system to show busy self employed people and business owners how to achieve success with less effort and time. Receive her free Time Package and find more additional articles at: www.simpletimemanagement.com/

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*IMNewswatch would like to thank Ann Rusnak for granting permission to reprint this article.

 

 

 

 

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