Interruptions
How was your week? Did you complete all the projects you planned? Cross out everything on your To-Do list? If you’re like me, you had to change your plans several times due to unexpected circumstances. Nothing ever goes exactly according to plan. That’s life.
If we’re going to lead happy, productive lives we must learn how to deal with interruptions.
On the one hand, interruptions can destroy productivity. Studies have shown that it can take up to eight minutes to return to the same level of concentration that was achieved before an interruption. It may be necessary, then, when performing tasks that require a great deal of concentration, to limit interruptions as much as possible. Put your phone on silent. Turn off the television. Go to a quiet place. Life is short. We must make the best use of the time God has given us (Eph. 5:15-16).
On the other hand, interruptions can be great opportunities. Dennis Lloyd shared this excerpt from Reader’s Digest that he kept under the glass on his desk: “When you are exasperated by interruptions try to remember that their frequency may indicate the valuableness of your life. Only the people who are full of help and strength are burdened by other people’s needs. The interruptions which we chafe at are the credentials of our indispensability. The greatest condemnation that anybody could incur—and it is a danger to guard against—is to be so independent, so unhelpful, that nobody ever interrupts us and we are left comfortably alone.”
In a letter to Arthur Greeves, C.S. Lewis pointed out the value of interruptions, saying, “The great thing, if one can, is to stop regarding unpleasant things as interruptions of one’s ‘own’ or ‘real’ life. The truth is of course that what one calls interruptions are precisely one’s real life—the life God is sending one day by day: what one calls one's ‘real life’ is a phantom of one's own imagination. This is what I see at moments of insight: but it's hard to remember it all the time.”
So as you start a new week, allow a little time for the unexpected. You must not begrudge interruptions. They often open doors of opportunity, but you also must make sure they do not control you.
Drew Kizer