Thought Talk

Today I want to talk about something that universally impacts our productivity: self-interruption.  If you work in an office, it’s obvious that other people are sources of interruption. While those may be less of a productivity problem when working from home – kids, friends, partners, and even pets can easily provide sources of distraction – interruptions by others are only a part of the story. A great deal of the interruptions we experience are self-interruptions.  Here are a few of the most common ways this happens.  You are working on a project and suddenly remember an item to add to your to-do list. You stop what you are doing to write it down - or worse, you stop to do it.  An idea pops into your head and you start exploring it on the Internet - stop what you were doing and shift your attention to the thoughts circling your brain.  You get a ping on your social media and go down the rabbit hole of reading recent posts - an immediate productivity killer.  According to one study, 40% of the time when we’