Lifehacker: The Guide to Working Smarter, Faster, and Better, Third Edition

Hack 43: Build a No-Fly Zone

Level Easy

Platform All

Cost Free

Many modern office spaces have open layouts to “promote interaction between departments” — which effectively means they’re set up to distract you all day long. Low-wall cubes, side-by-side desks, required use of an instant messenger (IM) — all make for a workday that’s interruption-driven instead of task-driven. Office seating arrangements that mix up personnel can place employees who do involved mental work such as programming or number-crunching next to loud salespeople chatting up clients all day on the phone.

For people who don’t have their own office with a door they can close, getting actual work done at the office can be a serious challenge. Co-workers drop by, IM windows pop up, you’re dragged off to meetings or hijacked to deal with the latest department crisis; these are all time-suckers that can leave you worn out at 6 p.m., wondering where the day went.

When you’re a cog in a larger workplace machine, changing your office’s culture might not be possible. But for your own sanity and productivity, do what you can to protect yourself from extraneous interruptions at the office.

Set Yourself Up to Get into the Zone

It takes 15 minutes of uninterrupted time to get into “the zone,” that wonderfully productive place where you lose all sense of time and space and get a job done. Protect yourself from interruptions before you start on an involved mental task to give yourself that 15-minute runway.

Forward your office ...