Guardrails: Handling a World of Interruptions
The perfect schedule is a myth. The real world is messy. A colleague will stop by your desk, a client will call with an “urgent” request, and a meeting will run 15 minutes over, consuming your perfectly planned break. Here’s how to protect your breaks without being rigid or unhelpful.
Protect Your Breaks Like Appointments
Treat your scheduled breaks with the same respect you give a meeting with your boss. If someone tries to book over your “Recharge Break,” don’t just delete it. Propose an alternative time for their meeting. You can say, “I’m not available at 10:30, but I’m free at 11:00. Does that work?” You are not obligated to explain that your unavailability is due to a break. It’s a scheduled commitment.
Handle Interruptions Gracefully
When an unexpected interruption occurs, the goal is to minimize context switching. This is the mental cost of shifting your attention from one task to another. If a coworker asks you a question during a deep work block, it’s better to say, “I’m in the middle of something, can I find you in 30 minutes?” than to switch gears and lose your focus. If the interruption is unavoidable, make a quick note of where you left off so you can resume more easily.
When Your Break Gets Hijacked
It will happen. A meeting runs over, and your 15-minute walk is gone. Don’t just skip it. The rule is: reschedule, don’t delete. Look at your afternoon. Can you shorten a shallow work block by 15 minutes to reclaim that break? Can you take it right after the meeting, even if it’s a bit later than planned? The act of rescheduling reinforces the value of the break and prevents one disruption from derailing your entire day. A hijacked break is a debt that your schedule owes you, and you should aim to collect it before the day is over.
Renegotiate Your Commitments
Sometimes your day is simply overbooked from the start. This is often a result of what’s known as Parkinson’s Law: work expands to fill the time allotted for its completion. If you have eight hours, you’ll find eight hours of things to do. The solution is to be ruthless about your priorities. Be willing to look at your schedule and ask, “What on this list can be delegated, delayed, or deleted?” Protecting your breaks sometimes means saying no or renegotiating deadlines on lower-priority tasks. It’s better to do three important things well, with proper rest, than to do ten things poorly in a state of exhaustion.
