How Much Did I Un-Dilbert?
In the space of 5 weeks I did a before/after comparison between the interruptions and inbox items I had to handle each week.
First I tracked the number of phone calls, interruptions, and emails I had to deal with to get a baseline.
Then I tried strategies described in these posts:
How to Un-Dilbert Your Life, Part 1
How to Un-Dilbert Your Life, Part 2
How to Un-Dilbert Your Life, Part 3
How to Un-Dilbert Your Life, Part 4
How to Un-Dilbert Your Life, Part 5
A few weeks later I tracked the results again to figure out if I reduced time spent on those tasks. Here’s what I found:
Incoming Phone Calls
The first week I received 19 phone calls (and one voicemail). These calls kept me on the phone about an hour and a half (1:33 to be exact).
By forwarding my calls to voicemail via Google voice I was able to avoid answering the phone completely. The amazing thing is that I’ve left it going that way permanently. There hasn’t been the problem I worried about. No one has even noticed.
In-Person Interruptions
Interruptions have fallen from 2:47 down to 0:40 minutes. They’re now down to a very manageable 5 minutes/day, which is pretty good considering I work in a normal office like many people.
Even email volume has declined. The first week I received 193 emails, send 88 messages and read 141. By last week I received 83 emails, send 55 and read 67.
At the beginning I thought if people couldn’t call me or find me in person, they might email more.
By unsubscribing to every non-essential distribution list, mailing list, and communicating more clearly in emails with regard to tasks, deadlines and processes my email volume has been drastically reduced.
One downside of unsubscribing to a lot of newsletters though is I believe I’m getting slightly more spam now, but it’s well worth the risk.
Conclusion
I’ve changed my behavior which has also influenced that of others around me to some extent. If the way I’ve gone about has also made it easier for others, as opposed to me just shoveling more work to others, then I think it’s making it easier for everyone.