Have You Got a Minute?



Learn Management Articles on management-info.biz. Have You Got a Minute? article will help answer your questions on Management Articles.We at management-info.biz specialize in Management Articles. Management Articles at management-info.biz provides the most up to date news and articles. If you have questions please do not hesitate to contact us.

Such an innocuous little phrase, yet when you are hard at work, really focused and engrossed in what you are doing this seemingly harmless request can be a nightmare distraction.

“The average American has 50 interruptions a day, of which 70% have nothing to do with work” W. Edwards Deming

Interruptions are on of the main time stealers that get in the way of productivity. Whether it is phone, email or person generated, have you got a minute? can really break your concentration, affect your mood and make you feel irritated and frustrated.

Have you got a minute can so easily turn into 5, 15 or even 30 minutes and suddenly your day is behind schedule but, remember you let it happen. However, the good news is that it is within your control to do something about it. You can stop or at least manage these situations
Here are my top 5 tips for managing interruptions

1.If you work in your own office – close the door and put a notice on the outside saying please do not disturb until 2.30pm (or whatever time you will be finished doing what you are doing)
2.If you work in an open plan office, put a note on your desk or on top of your PC saying I need to concentrate, please do not disturb , then take it down when you are finished
3.If you need to have uninterrupted time each day, switch off your phone, close down your email and let your colleagues, boss and team know that for example, you do not want to be interrupted, plan meetings, chat etc every day between 8.30 and 9am
4.In response to the Have you got a minute? You can say
a.No
b.Not at the moment but if you come back in 30 minute I will have
c.I have a maximum of 5 minutes. What specifically do you want to speak to me about and is 5 minutes enough? If so go ahead. If not, suggest a more convenient time
d.Tell me what you specifically want to talk to me about and then I’ll tell you whether now is a good time to discuss it
5.Educate your colleagues, team, boss to do all of the above and respect their wishes too. This helps create good habits all round


Article Index: | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 | 32 | 33 | 34 | 35 | 36 | 37 | 38 | 39 | 40 | 41 | 42 | 43 | 44 | 45 | 46 | 47 | 48 | 49 | 50 | 51 | 52 | 53 | 54 | 55 | 56 | 57 | 58 | 59 | 60 | 61 | 62 | 63 | 64 | 65 | 66 | 67 | 68 | 69 | 70 | 71 | 72 | 73 | 74 | 75 | 76 | 77 | 78 | 79 | 80 | 81



More Articles:


1. Creativity and Innovation Directors, Consultants and Managers By Kal Bishop
Creativity and Innovation is essential for competitive advantage, yet the role of Creativity and Innovation Manager is often not viewed as essential. Organizations without such a role will simply not perform as competitively as their rivals.People within and outside of an organization see problems all the time, but rarely are those problems dealt with in time. Tangible negative movements usually force change – shortcomings in expected growth, a fall in share price etc.Some of the requirements …

2. A Fast and Simple Way to Update Your Business By A l Hanzal
You open your computer, the flashing button says, “We have a new update for your software program. Do you wish to update now or later?” You choose the Update Now button and immediately your computer begins to download a new version of the software program.What is the program updating? It’s fixing broken parts of the software program; it’s adding new features. It does this quickly and easily. Right before your eyes you see the update taking place. You click a button and you have the newes…

3. Can A Business Still Be Profitable When People Skills Are Absent? By Chuck Yorke
In our current world of rapid and amazing technological advances, many entrepreneurs have managed to dramatically limit the need for staff in highly profitable operations of all kinds.It is therefore tempting and believable to imagine that with every passing day, the need for people skills is diminishing. In fact most entrepreneurs are convinced that one no longer requires people skills to run a highly profitable enterprise. After all technology can do it all for you.This is both an unfortunat…

4. Getting Information From Prospects By Nancy Roebke
You're at a networking function and you've made that all-important contact. You want to get help from this individual but you know that you need to start working on building a relationship with them first. How do you do that?The hardest thing for people to understand about networking functions is that very little real business gets done on an initial contact at these functions. If you go into the function NOT EXPECTING to get business, but to make contacts, you will have a far greater success …