> [!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 hold of 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 disruption to workflows. I have always managed these quite well, even if it meant I spent a few extra hours in the office. (Only a handful of times has it become so much that 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 starting work on campus post-pandemic and then being able to begin 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 I turned to chapters 2.4 and 2.5 in DeGrandis (2022) *Making Work Visible*, and using the example models 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 related to. Like anyone, I know what these are, but having them visually stack-up is helpful to reflect and improve. I wanted this to help me better manage myself, as well as be a better manager in where I spent time. The X-axis items and explanations are as follows: - **Backlog** — items that I had full awareness 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. - **Cancelled** — items that were cancelled and remove from workflows. The Y-axis items and explanations are as follows: - **Unplanned interruptions** — work that comes up and must be done to support LAI, internal, and teaming efforts. - **Internal: unit** — work done towards LAI 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 a lot, I know I didn't capture all of them. ## 🎯 Results This adopted activity enabled me to get my work under control by seeing what were distractions. By seeing where time-sucks were coming from, I was able to decide what to step away from, delegate to others, or pass on. This exercise became useful for me to understand struggles from my staff, create a work management solution in Notion, and to 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.