#whiteboarding #visible-work #design-thinking #miro #program-management > [!summary]+ Summary > This page describes a strategy taken to document and keep track of work interruptions. The table shown was used for a time to help me get a handle on interruptions and take action to reduce them. (See the bottom of this page for the results of this activity.) # Managing work disruptions Every working professional faces disruptions to their workflow. I have always managed these quite well, even if it meant spending a few extra hours in the office. (Only a handful of times did it reach the point where I stayed overnight and slept in the office.) The first couple of years of my directorship at George Washington University (GWU) were quite smooth. But once work returned to campus post-pandemic and I began building programs, it became more difficult to focus enough time on the things that matter most due to the volume of interruptions I was facing. According to DeGrandis (2022) there are 5 things that steal time and prevent work from getting done. These are 1) too much work in progress (WIP), 2) unknown dependencies, 3) unplanned work, 4) conflicting priorities, and 5) neglected work. (See [[making work visible#Making OPERATIONS work visible]].) My challenge was quickly becoming the unplanned work. ## Planned and unplanned work tracker As I sought a solution, I discovered chapters 2.4 and 2.5 in DeGrandis (2022) *Making Work Visible*. From here, I used the example models and built this table in [Miro](https://miro.com). ![[202305_Operations-mapping.png]] For a few months, I used this table to get a sense of what was coming in and what it was connected to. Like anyone, I know what these are, but having them visually stack-up is helpful to reflect and make corrections. I wanted this to help me better manage my work, as well as be a better time and people manager. The X-axis items and explanations are as follows: - **Backlog** — items that I was fully aware of and needed to plan and/or act upon. - **Working-1** — items that I was working on myself first. - **Socializing** — items that I had shared with others and requested their feedback and effort. - **Working-2** — items that needed to come back to me. - **Completed** — items that were completed and delivered. - **Canceled** — items that were canceled and removed from workflows. The Y-axis items and explanations are as follows: - **Unplanned interruptions** — work that comes up and must be done to support library, department, and team efforts. - **Internal: unit** — work done towards library and unit objectives and unit functions. - **Internal: operations** — work done to maintain unit operations; includes HR matters. - **Team projects** — work done to support unit staff members in assigned projects. Of all of these, the **yellow stickies** were the most important. Following the DeGrandis (2022) model, I used these to denote the interruptions. While there were many, I know I didn’t capture all of them. ## 🎯 Results This activity helped me get my work under control by seeing what were distractions. As direction of time-sucks were revealed, I was able to decide what to step away from, delegate to others, or pass on doing. This exercise became useful for me to understand struggles from my staff, create a work management solution in Notion, and communicate with my leadership about the kinds of interruptions I was managing. ## Resources DeGrandis, D. (2022). _Making work visible: Exposing time theft to optimize work & flow_. IT Revolution.