When you don’t have time, say so. Don’t be rude, just say that you have another engagement in another room. That will get you out of the conversation. Also think about whether you would be more effective handling the necessary, but not very beneficial, paperwork during the less busy parts of the day. Also try to turn off notifications of new e-mails which can be pretty distracting. Look at this advice by the consulting.about.com website.
1) Have an escape plan
Sometimes it can happen that a certain unexpected visitor stops by and manipulates your scheduled time. Colleagues, spouses, chatty clients… it is definitely possible. In order to protect your time, have an evacuation plan you can follow. As soon as you know the conversation going on and on, is wasting your work time, you need to politely tell the person that you really need to get cracking again.
2) Paperwork can be done later
Do you often need to fill in invoices and handle accounting? Don’t do that during the busiest part of the workday. When you can meet with important people or clients, you should not waste your time on the boring yet necessary paperwork. Do it in the evening or in the early morning. Also there will be fewer distractions so it will take you less time.
3) Schedule time for calls and mails
Schedule a specific time when you will check your messages and return phone calls. Otherwise you can easily get off track, because you end up constantly answering phone calls. Especially if you tend to think that all of them are urgent. It s better to answer them later one after the other. The best way is to choose an hour in the morning and another hour in the afternoon, so everyone has two chances to reach you. Also let callers know what times of the day they can expect you calling them back. Also keep an alternative phone number for cases of a real emergency.
-jk-