Answer That Phone
You can
hear it ringing, just thinking about it. Persistent and irritating, like something under your skin, one line rings, then another. Your bench work is constantly interrupted by it. Some days you just want to scream, "ANSWER THAT PHONE!"
Using a nominal group technique, our laboratory identified the telephone as the number one distraction causing errors and interferes with productivity. The barrage of requests for information--usually laboratory reports--makes techs drop what they're doing, retrace steps, repeat work and worry something is missed.
According to one human resources professional at Harvard Pilgrim Health Care in Massachusetts, two factors contribute to employee distraction and overload. One is the blurring of boundaries between work and home. But the other is technology, the "continuous cascade of information, both important and trivial." Lines there are blurred too, creating crises at every turn.
Uh-huh. Tell that to anyone working a weekend evening alone with a packed Emergency Department and a G.I. bleeder in the operating room, and you're preaching to the choir. Distractions are integral to laboratory work. And it's not just the telephone. Faxes, e-mails, pagers, buzzers, timers, alarms and cranky instruments all demand attention. Question is how do we stay focused in an environment with ever-increasing distractions?
One service rep recently told me she talks to herself. Please tell me there's a better way.
According to Psychology Today, there are two answers. The first is to avoid becoming emotionally upset by distractions. That makes sense, if you consider it a waste of your energy to get upset at the inevitable.
The second answer is more interesting. Since being waylaid by a distraction means losing focus, the key to remaining productive is to refocus. "Practice focusing in 5-minute blocks," writes the author. You can remind yourself your ability to "persistently refocus" can help diminish the impact of any distraction. Plan for distractions, in other words, instead of hoping for none.
In the meantime, would someone please answer that phone?