Interruptions
04/01/19 03:32
Yesterday was my first full day back in the office after a week’s vacation. I had hoped to be in the office a day earlier, but the travel delay meant that I had to drive 400 miles before getting to work on Wednesday. No worries, I knew what had to be done and there can always be travel delays. No critical meetings were missed. There was, however, a lot that needed to be accomplished in the day. And, it seemed, everything took longer than I thought.
I was working on a draft of the bulletin for a funereal set for Saturday. I asked the funeral home to email me a picture for the bulletin. That meant that I had to check my email, which had a couple of dozen messages, at least three of which needed a response. I’ve learned not to put off responding to emails. It always takes more time when I delay. So I was dealing with those messages, which required putting dates on the calendar, so I had that application open on my desk. Someone poked their head into the office and asked a question, which required me to take a quick look at the church’s annual report. The easiest way to do that is to open it from the church’s web page. I found the information and started to go back to the emails when the man who we had called to fix the church’s voice mail system arrived. I had to go down into the basement with him, where our voice mail and phone system controller are located. I returned to my desk and had to close several windows on the computer to get back to the email. I retrieved the picture and placed it in the bulletin, closing a few more windows while I was going.
When I think of it is is evident why the desktop on my computer resembles the top of my physical desk. There are several stacks with multiple documents and more than a few things that I intended to deal with, but now can be thrown in the trash because they were time sensitive and I didn’t meat a particular deadline.
I like to think of myself as organized, but my organizational systems sometimes only barely keep up. Sometimes they don’t keep up.
More than four decades ago, I read some of the books by Marshall McLuhan, the Canadian professor who wrote that “the medium is the message.” He also wrote about the accelerating pace of change. I wasn’t a big student of media or media theory, but his philosophical ideas connected with my thinking at the time. I haven’t read his words or even thought about him for quite a long time, but it seems to me that what he wrote about the acceleration of the pace of change has proven to be very accurate. What I don’t know is how much the perception that things are changing more quickly is affected by my age. I have more memories to keep organized than was the case when I was in my twenties. I have experienced more change simply because I have had more years in which to experience change.
A couple of years ago, I read an article in Forbes Magazine about how interruptions at work destroy productivity. An interruption causes you to lose concentration and according to the article (if I am remembering it correctly) it takes an average of 25 minutes to return to the original task after an interruption. The article suggested that the solution was to learn to avoid interruptions at work, thus increasing productivity.
The problem with that is that my job is often the very thing that has interrupted my work. I know that sounds a bit convoluted, but my job isn’t answering emails or producing printed documents. Those tasks need to be accomplished, but my job is being in relationship with the people I serve. Their phone calls and stopping by my office is what my job is all about. Yes, I may be more inefficient at some tasks that others consider to be simple, but the truth is that many of the tasks I do could be done others. There are plenty of people who can manage the church’s software and phone system and sound system and make sure that the Christmas items are put into the right storage area. There are others who can set up the lights and move the piano. My real job is talking to the members and friends of my congregation. My job is serving those in need who come to the church because they have nowhere else to turn. My job is to deal with the interruptions.
Traditional notions of productivity aren’t especially helpful when it comes to the work of a pastor. The books and articles about efficiency and avoiding interruptions and maximizing productivity rarely are about those of us whose whole vocation is tied up in serving people. People interrupt. And in my office they interrupt a lot. There are days when I start a simple task that might take a half hour and I still haven’t accomplished that task ten hours later. While it probably would have made sense for me to delegate that task to another person, I have to remind myself that while I was not accomplishing that task, I was doing other things and most of those things are far more important than the original task.
So I have a messy desk in a cluttered office and each time I try to make order out of the chaos, I am interrupted and don’t ever get all the way through the task. I’ve got more half done projects on my desk than I can count. I’m willing to live with that. I’m willing to go to bed at night with tasks that are unfinished. I’m OK with unfinished business and undone tasks. I don’t know whether or not it is a problem to my congregation, but I can guarantee that the clutter and unfinished tasks bother some of them.
And if they stop by to share their concern with me, I certainly will stop trying to get to the bottom of the stack of papers on my desk and give my full attention to what they have to say. For me, really listening is more important than getting my desk cleared. This way, I have plenty to do tomorrow and the day after that.
I was working on a draft of the bulletin for a funereal set for Saturday. I asked the funeral home to email me a picture for the bulletin. That meant that I had to check my email, which had a couple of dozen messages, at least three of which needed a response. I’ve learned not to put off responding to emails. It always takes more time when I delay. So I was dealing with those messages, which required putting dates on the calendar, so I had that application open on my desk. Someone poked their head into the office and asked a question, which required me to take a quick look at the church’s annual report. The easiest way to do that is to open it from the church’s web page. I found the information and started to go back to the emails when the man who we had called to fix the church’s voice mail system arrived. I had to go down into the basement with him, where our voice mail and phone system controller are located. I returned to my desk and had to close several windows on the computer to get back to the email. I retrieved the picture and placed it in the bulletin, closing a few more windows while I was going.
When I think of it is is evident why the desktop on my computer resembles the top of my physical desk. There are several stacks with multiple documents and more than a few things that I intended to deal with, but now can be thrown in the trash because they were time sensitive and I didn’t meat a particular deadline.
I like to think of myself as organized, but my organizational systems sometimes only barely keep up. Sometimes they don’t keep up.
More than four decades ago, I read some of the books by Marshall McLuhan, the Canadian professor who wrote that “the medium is the message.” He also wrote about the accelerating pace of change. I wasn’t a big student of media or media theory, but his philosophical ideas connected with my thinking at the time. I haven’t read his words or even thought about him for quite a long time, but it seems to me that what he wrote about the acceleration of the pace of change has proven to be very accurate. What I don’t know is how much the perception that things are changing more quickly is affected by my age. I have more memories to keep organized than was the case when I was in my twenties. I have experienced more change simply because I have had more years in which to experience change.
A couple of years ago, I read an article in Forbes Magazine about how interruptions at work destroy productivity. An interruption causes you to lose concentration and according to the article (if I am remembering it correctly) it takes an average of 25 minutes to return to the original task after an interruption. The article suggested that the solution was to learn to avoid interruptions at work, thus increasing productivity.
The problem with that is that my job is often the very thing that has interrupted my work. I know that sounds a bit convoluted, but my job isn’t answering emails or producing printed documents. Those tasks need to be accomplished, but my job is being in relationship with the people I serve. Their phone calls and stopping by my office is what my job is all about. Yes, I may be more inefficient at some tasks that others consider to be simple, but the truth is that many of the tasks I do could be done others. There are plenty of people who can manage the church’s software and phone system and sound system and make sure that the Christmas items are put into the right storage area. There are others who can set up the lights and move the piano. My real job is talking to the members and friends of my congregation. My job is serving those in need who come to the church because they have nowhere else to turn. My job is to deal with the interruptions.
Traditional notions of productivity aren’t especially helpful when it comes to the work of a pastor. The books and articles about efficiency and avoiding interruptions and maximizing productivity rarely are about those of us whose whole vocation is tied up in serving people. People interrupt. And in my office they interrupt a lot. There are days when I start a simple task that might take a half hour and I still haven’t accomplished that task ten hours later. While it probably would have made sense for me to delegate that task to another person, I have to remind myself that while I was not accomplishing that task, I was doing other things and most of those things are far more important than the original task.
So I have a messy desk in a cluttered office and each time I try to make order out of the chaos, I am interrupted and don’t ever get all the way through the task. I’ve got more half done projects on my desk than I can count. I’m willing to live with that. I’m willing to go to bed at night with tasks that are unfinished. I’m OK with unfinished business and undone tasks. I don’t know whether or not it is a problem to my congregation, but I can guarantee that the clutter and unfinished tasks bother some of them.
And if they stop by to share their concern with me, I certainly will stop trying to get to the bottom of the stack of papers on my desk and give my full attention to what they have to say. For me, really listening is more important than getting my desk cleared. This way, I have plenty to do tomorrow and the day after that.