Impact of No-interruption time-slots on the productivity

It’s pretty much impossible to get through a workday without interruptions. You’re working on a major project, and you’ve blocked out a few hours to really create a megahit. But just as you’re getting into the zone, your boss stops by to drop off some work and learn about your progress on the project. Your co-worker comes over to chat about next week’s meeting. Your email pings and your clients ask for an update. Then you receive a WhatsApp message on a family group. You face one interruption after another. And when you finally get back to your project, with all of your brilliant new thoughts, you couldn't produce the work you could otherwise. 

The fun fact is we don't even realize that these interruptions are killing our productivity. We are so rooted in workplace disturbances, be it face-to-face interruptions or noise levels from co-workers that we let go of the thought of reducing it. 

When researchers dug deeper, they found out that usually, interruptions cost 273 minutes in 480 minutes of a workday. That means 4 hours are not productive out of 8 hours! That’s a hell of a cost to a company! 

We at Deligence Technologies took a leap to conquer interruptions at our workplace. We did a cognitive experiment by implementing pre-scheduled no interruptions time at the office for two weeks. Later we find it valuable and continued with it (till now 10 weeks).

Experiment Design

●      We scheduled no interruption slots using Amazon Alexa that notified employees to try not to interrupt in the block time. 

●      No other interruptions were allowed. So, no meeting, no mail, no social media networking. Just a 4-hour block time out of 8 working hours in a day (4 slots of one hour each). 

Week 1 Findings: 

Overwhelmed with the repercussions of interruptions. Employees had a hard time with no interference due to which they resisted the change. During the first week, they were: 

1. Unable to plan the days
2. The time gaps between no-interruption slots were smaller (half an hour) due to which employees couldn't anticipate the meetings. 
3. Had a tough time in penning down and communicating the workflow with co-workers. 

Week 2-3 Findings

Time slots were changed to allow employees to plan the meetings accordingly. 

1. Meetings were planned 
2. Productivity was low due to the lack of ability to concentrate and focus for a longer period.
3. Employees faced difficulty in accomplishing daily tasks.
4. The silence was daunting! Employees faced task-unrelated thoughts.  
5. Employees had different interruption experiences. For some, Interruptions were “time worthy” if they involve tasks that are deemed high-priority, relevant to other ongoing projects. 

Week 4 Findings

We learned that interruption timing plays a big role, so we allowed High priority interruptions in the timed-slots. 

1. Shorter and priority interruptions sparked positive emotions. 
2. Planned no interference slots eliminated frequent interruptions and disruptions. 
3. Employees were motivated, and their goals were easily organized into smaller tasks.  

Week 5 Findings

The team introduced new ideas to develop a day plan

1. Scout meetings were introduced. 
2. Tasks were assigned prior. Projects were delivered before time. 
3. Employees were able to prioritize the work. 
4. Employees scheduled non-urgent meetings with clients in no interruption time. 

Week 6 Findings

Employees' productivity was sky-high. Creativity pushed in the workflow. 

1. Overcome the email, phone, social interruptions. 
2. Silence is no longer a distraction.
3. Micro-management fostered longer productive hours. 
4. Employees were able to come up with creative ideas. 
5. The team achieved the monthly goals gracefully. 

Interruptions will always probably be in our life. We can't eliminate it, but we can quantitatively reduce non-productive interruptions to do our best work. Research stated working faster with interruptions has its cost: people in the interrupted conditions experienced a higher workload, more stress, higher frustration, more time pressure, and effort. It is essential for workplaces to really understand just how bad the interruption issue can be for Employee and Business growth. Hope our implementation inspires you to build smart strategies in your workplace. Don’t forget to share your thoughts, strategies and experiences in the comments below. We would love to implement yours in our organization!

Sanjay Kumar

https://www.deligence.com