---
date: '2023-10-30T08:58:58.894909'
post_meta:
- date
preview: /social/cf10fe2d043c0f98c413b646bd1b9f24c31f153d48fe95b22f727db995fe50f7.png
tags:
- leadership
- psychology
title: Dealing with Interruption When it Arises
type: posts
url: /posts/2023/10/30/dealing-with-interruption-when-it-arises1698656338
---

<p>From <a href="https://admiredleadership.substack.com/p/once-interrupted-give-it-your-full">Once Interrupted, Give It Your Full Attention - Admired Leadership</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
  <p>Good leaders do their best to prevent distractions and avoid interruptions. </p>
  <p>...</p>
  <p>But no matter how much planning goes into eliminating distractions and arranging the physical work environment to enhance focus, people (and pets) interrupt the flow. </p>
  <p>...</p>
  <p>
    Once interrupted, it often makes the most sense to give the source of the disturbance your full attention. If it’s going to take a few minutes to redeploy your focus anyway, why not achieve the equally important goal of doing what leaders are meant to do: focus on the problems and issues of others. 
    <br />
  </p>
</blockquote>
<p>This really makes a lot of sense. Our brains will more-than-likely try to pull us back to whatever we were doing before the interruption (see <a href="https://hbr.org/2020/10/why-your-brain-dwells-on-unfinished-tasks">the Zeigarnik effect</a>). However, if you follow your instincts on this, you have to go through the pain of another context switch whilst the thing that generated the interruption presumably remains unresolved.</p>