In this solo coaching episode of the "Start Your Day" show, certified high‑performance coach Sean Buttner explains why interruptions are a major threat to productivity, noting that each disruption can cost up to 20 minutes to regain a flow state. He then presents four practical approaches to mitigate and recover from interruptions: (1) create clear environmental signals (closed doors, headphones, visual cues) that tell others you’re in focus mode; (2) schedule distinct office‑hours for availability and dedicated focus‑hours for deep work; (3) use time‑blocking, typically a 50‑minute work segment followed by a 10‑minute break, to protect concentration; and (4) manage personal energy through what he calls the “meds” – meditation, exercise, diet, and sufficient sleep – a framework he attributes to his mentor Brendan Richards. Buttner emphasizes prevention and rapid energy‑recovery as the best ways to stay in flow. He closes by promoting an upcoming Transformative Performance Habits workshop, inviting viewers to register via a link.
Chapters
Oh, good morning, everyone. Welcome to Start yout Day. Great. Start your day with a coach. I am your host, Sean Butner, certified high performance coach. And this camera is freaking out. Let's try this one more time. Sure. You can still hear me on Facebook. Okay. Hopefully that's sorted itself out. If not, I can flip cameras, but anyway. Okay, so you know, this is the show where we start and we talk about habits, tactics, strategies to make sure that you live into your full potential every day. Because we need to get better, right? The need to get better is what drives us, you know, or at least the ability to put our whole heart into our work, into our relationships and our health and well being. So with that said, today we're going to be talking about how to handle interruptions real quick. So it's Monday when I'm recording this, and it's a really great time to get set for the week to think about what you want to accomplish, to think about things that might get in your way as you go forward. And interruptions are a common thing that we all have because they are the devil to our productivity. In our best case scenario, we're in a flow state where we're completely focused and we're completely enthralled in our work. And every time we get interrupted, every time we have to start a task, it can take up to 20 minutes to get back into that flow state. So that's why interruptions are so bad. So if you've ever had that annoying co worker that comes up to you at work and just starts mindlessly talking to you about random things and it breaks your focus, or you have the kids burst into your home office during a meeting for the fifth time today or any other interruption, then this is a video for you. So before we continue to, I want to remind you to like subscribe, do the social media thing. Comment below if you like this. If you've been ever interrupted and you think it's really annoying because again, that's what we're talking about. So, okay, we know that interruptions can be frustrating, but what if we could handle those interruptions and distractions in a way that kept us in flow or got us back quicker and kept us moving forward, you know, we can reduce distractions and minimize their impact through or four different ideas. Idea number one is by creating an environment to signal when we are working or we're focused, right? So that could be closing the door to your office. It could be having some noise canceling headphones. Those are kind of popular ones. It could be like Physically blocking your door with a curtain. The ideas are endless, but the idea is what in your environment signals to your co workers, to your family, to your friends, to anyone nearby that you are not to be bothered or not to be interrupted. Right? And so yeah, how can you set that up in your life? A second thing to do is to take a look at planning. So you have specific like office hours where you're available for questions and walk ups and impromptu meetings and then focus hours or times when you are doing the work. Right. So this is kind of very basic stuff, but sometimes the common practice or common sense things are not the common practice things as we know. So it's that little bit of organization and the communication of that can be really helpful in both the home office and, you know, workplace environments. The third thing to do is block time. So that's a dedicated set of hours where you're just focusing on one task at a time. So it's usually a one hour block where it's 50 minutes focusing on the most important tasks and then 10 minutes of taking a break, managing your energy. Which leads us to the next point which is to do your meds, which is meditation, it's exercise, it's diet and it's sleep, popularized by my mentor Brendan Richard. So if you are always kind of frazzled or you get thrown off base, meditation can be a good way to center yourself and to get back in the game. You know, making sure you exercise and move just get some of the extra energy and frustration out if you are interrupted a lot in the course of your job or day. Diet, of course, if you're eating garbage in is garbage out. So you can set yourself up for more volatile emotions for more like energy issues. If you're not minding your energy and then sleep, of course getting at least seven hours of sleep. Seven to nine is the recommended amount of sleep for most adults in North America. So if you're getting less than that, try upping up to see if that'll help you handle interruptions better and help you focus more during the day. So all that to say the main idea here is prevention is the best way to handle interruptions. So outside of that, if we can mind our energy, we can bounce back into flow quicker. And that's why it's so important to handle interruptions so we can maximize how the or the productivity on the things that we need. Okay, so that said, so last Friday I ran a really awesome workshop called the transformative High Performance habits workshop. Transformative Habit Performance Habits workshop. Man, maybe a little too much coffee today, guys. So I'm going to do it again this week, taking some updates, taking some input from you folks that attended last time. So if you did, I just want to say thank you again for attending. It was a lot of fun. I know a lot of people got a lot out of it, thought it was really awesome. So we're making it a little bit more clear, you know, just kind of going through that whole rigmarole. But again, this Friday at 1pm I'll be Pacific Standard Time. I'll be posting the Transformative Performance Habits Workshop. So we'll work through three big habits that can have a huge impact on your life and figuring out where you want to go, managing your energy and making decisions a little bit quicker, a little bit more, or with a little bit more confidence so that you guys can again live your best life. So if you're interested in that, check the link in my bio or the link below this video and put your name and email and you'll get sent the zoom link for the webinar this Friday or the live training. And yeah, come with your questions, come with open mind, and we'll do some great work together. And I firmly believe that. So that said, guys, go out there, live with more joy, more personal growth, and more impact in your communities. This is your coach, Sean, signing off. Take care.
