Stop Interrupting Your Magic
Leaders, here’s one simple thing you can do for your team: Stop interrupting them. Constant interruptions at work create death by a thousand cuts and they don’t just contribute to the mental and physical stress that are making burnout an epidemic. They interfere with your team’s magic. A UC Irvine study showed that in the average workplace, people get interrupted every 11 minutes and (wait for it,) it takes 25 minutes to get back in the flow. That’s some broken math, my friend. And, if like many workplaces, yours is trying to get a handle on the racism within, know this: the “right to interrupt“ is closely aligned with privilege. White people like me are more likely to interrupt BIPOC people. Men are more likely to interrupt women and non-binary people. Managers are more likely to interrupt people who report to them.
You want your team to bring it, right? They are amazing and the world needs their gifts, right? Same goes for you, my friend. And, as Maya Angela said, “Be wary of the naked person who offers you his shirt.” In order to offer your team some time to get into the zone, you need to be able give yourself the kind of uninterrupted flow that supports your best, most creative and (a hallmark of creativity) pleasurable work. This is the work of the Great Turning toward a just and life-sustaining society. It requires Whole Time. (Credit for the term “Whole Time” to Rebecca Tidewalker, a wise witch who has passed beyond the veil. Hail the goer as we approach Halloween!)
Here are five simple things you can do to create more “Whole Time:”
Turn off at least some of your notifications. You do not need the latest nonsense restarting the cortisol cycle in your body every five minutes.
Hit “Save Draft.” Is that message a hot potato that you are passing on to your team to reduce your stress? Write it! But don’t send it. A constant “Sense of Urgency” is one of the characteristics of white supremacy in Tema Okun’s now ubiquitous list. (Check out the beautifully curated update here. https://www.whitesupremacyculture.info) Switching from constant response mode to uninterrupted creative mode allows you to do the extraordinary work that you are capable of and is also a core equity skill. Making his switch requires those with positional power and other kinds of privilege to feel our own discomfort and handle it instead of hot potato-ing it to our teams.
Answer emails/ messages at one or two specific times every day. And stop sending them to your teams at night and on the weekends. I assume you are telling them they don’t have to answer email at all times? Actions speak louder than words.
Stop the madness. 73 percent of interruptions typically are handled right away without any consideration for priority. Whaaatt?? When you are interrupted, pause. Make a note of the last thought in your head, underline the last thing you wrote. Then consider: Is this actually important right now?
Find some whole time in your calendar. Think about the kind of whole time that will be most valuable for you as a leader: self-care time to lower stress, CEO time to get your priorities clear, or creative focus time on a priority project that keeps getting bumped. Look for at least 45 minutes of uninterrupted time in your calendar and let your team know that you are doing this and why. Is 45 minutes of whole time tough to find, tough to protect? That’s information about your stress level and/or your team culture. Share this article (or another on the topic) with your boss or board or the people who report to you and start a conversation about your workplace’s relationship with time. Consider asking your coach to offer you support and accountability to turn that around.