親愛的安妮：我工作的辦公室以前是“隔間農場”式布局，既吵鬧又容易讓人分心。最近，我們搬到了另一處敞開式布局的辦公地點，那里的工作區之間沒有隔墻。敞開布局本該會讓團隊協作變得更容易實現，但有些人似乎覺得這意味著他們隨時都可以用愚蠢透頂的小問題或最新的辦公室八卦來打擾其他同事。

????問題在于，隨著電子郵件、文本和手機短信的不斷狂轟亂炸以及現在人為干擾的出現，想專注地工作一兩分鐘都變得幾乎不可能。我很欣賞我的老板，但他似乎也是最大的干擾源。他每天要來我的辦公桌前溜達五六趟，用他自己的話來說，這樣就算是“報個到”。我想讓別人（尤其是老板）識趣點，同時態度又不會顯得粗魯。你對此有什么好的建議嗎？——一個無計可施的人

親愛的無計可施的人：你并不是第一個為這種事而感到頭疼的人。據德勤咨詢公司（Deloitte Consulting）發布的2014年人力資本趨勢研究顯示，有將近70%的高級管理者認為，因全天被信息和干擾所包圍而“不堪重負的員工”是拖累生產效率的“迫切”或“非常重要”的因素。這項調查面向90個國家的2,500多位管理者進行，調查的研究報告宣稱，到目前為止只有約4%的公司出臺了旨在解決這個問題的簡單政策或方案。

????既然你的老板不在這4%之列，那么解決問題只能靠你自己了?！爱斢腥舜騻€電話或順道過來轉轉說：‘能占用你一分鐘時間嗎？’時，一切看起來似乎合情合理，”即將出版的《降服時間大盜：找回被偷走的寶貴時間》（The Time Bandit Solution: Recovering Stolen Time You Never Knew You Had）一書的作者艾德?布朗說?！暗坏┧悸繁淮驍?，你就很難再找回來。通常情況下，你只有從頭再開始。這不僅是時間的巨大浪費，甚至還會造成更多的壓力?！?/p>

????布朗是科恩布朗管理集團（Cohen Brown Management Group）的聯合創始人，這家公司一直在為美林證券（Merrill Lynch）、花旗銀行（Citibank）和保誠保險（Prudential）這些從事金融服務業的客戶提供時間管理咨詢服務。布朗表示，在很多大公司，人們有40%至60%的工作時間會慢慢消耗在分心的事物上，尤其是來自于同事的干擾。他將這樣的同事稱之為“時間大盜”。根據布朗的觀察，“老板通常是最惡劣的違規者，因為身為員工，你會覺得自己無法開口拒絕?！?/p>

????或許拒絕一下也沒什么。我們大可假定大多數——即便不是全部——同事也都希望減少分心。因此，布朗建議大家團結起來，商定出一個他稱之為“時間鎖”的系統。也就是說，將每天特定的幾個小時定性為特殊時間段（比如從兩點到四點）。在這段時間里，你可以全身心地投入自己的本職工作之中。

????布朗承認，要讓每個人都認同這樣的做法需要進行一些協商。但他認為，說服同事制定一份“請勿打擾”的時間表通常是“是一件能造福于所有人的簡單事情?！?他發現，有些團隊和部門在嘗試一兩個星期之后就嘗到了甜頭：工作效率大幅提升，不堪重負的員工少了。于是，他們便將“時間鎖”系統變成了制度沿襲下來。

????此外，布朗還認為，讓老板把心思放在工作上并勸說他限制自己“報到”次數，“并不像人們所認為的那樣存在巨大的風險。關鍵在于強調一點：如果在每天的特定時段里我能完全專心致志地撲在工作上，那么我的工作效率會更高。這樣，對老板你趕上截止日期也有好處?！畷r間鎖’系統絕對是管理者的福音，因為不管能不能想得通，最終為自己所造成的干擾買單的人還是老板們?！?/p>

????如果老板不聽勸怎么辦？這時候就輪到備選方案出馬了，《降服時間大盜》一書對此作了詳細描述（就差現場演示了）。其實，它概括起來就是：商議一個在完成手頭工作之后可以聚會、交流的時間。布朗本人的下屬全都是“時間鎖”的忠實信徒，他們經常會這樣約定與布朗坐下來進行交流的時間：“四點之前我要一直圍繞著某某項目展開工作。等到了四點我再打電話給你怎么樣？”而身為管理者，如果這種時候還要去破壞員工的工作效率，那真是太愚蠢了。

????或許這樣說沒錯，但布朗也承認自己曾經目睹過有些老板就是不能、或者說不愿意放下架子，來真正尊重“時間鎖”系統。如果你的老板就是這樣的人，“那除非你不靠這點工資過活，否則你就只能拋開手邊的工作，然后老老實實地應上一句，‘我有什么可幫你的嗎？’”

????再引申一下，重新掌控自己的時間也許意味著你必須改變自己的某些習慣。德勤咨詢公司的研究表明，當前商業人士群體的平均注意廣度約為7分鐘——部分原因在于他們每天查看手機的次數幾乎高達150次。如果你決定嘗試一下布朗給出的杜絕分心方案，那么當處于“時間鎖”的專注時段中時，你不妨也把手機關掉。這樣的做法值得一試。

互動話題：你是否曾經嘗試過在辦公室里工作時減少分心？你采取過哪些措施？它們能起到效果嗎？請在下面留下評論。(財富中文網)

????譯者：徐黃兆

Dear Annie: I work in an office that used to be a "cube farm," which was noisy and distracting enough, but now we've gone to an "open plan" layout where there are no walls at all between workstations. This is supposed to make collaboration and teamwork easier, but some people seem to think it means they can bother co-workers at any time with any dumb little question or the latest tidbit of office gossip or whatever.

????The problem is, with the constant flood of emails, texts, phone messages, and now in-person interruptions, it's almost impossible to concentrate for more than a minute or two. I like my boss, but he's the biggest distraction, dropping by my desk five or six times a day to, as he says, "check in." Can you suggest any way to tell people (especially the boss) to buzz off, without being rude about it? -- At Wit's End

Dear A.W.E.: You're not the only one struggling with this. Consider: Almost 70% of senior managers say "the overwhelmed employee" -- bombarded with information and interruptions all day long -- is an "urgent" or "very important" drag on productivity, according to the 2014 Human Capital Trends Study from Deloitte Consulting. Drawing on a poll of about 2,500 managers in 90 countries, the report says that only about 4% of companies have so far come up with any kind of policy or program to address this.

????Since your employer doesn't seem to be one of those few, it's up to you. "When someone calls or drops by and says, 'Got a minute?' it seems so reasonable,"notesEd Brown, author of a forthcoming book, The Time Bandit Solution: Recovering Stolen Time You Never Knew You Had."But once your train of thought has been disrupted, it's very hard to get that momentum back. Often, you have to start a task over from the beginning, which is a big waste of time and causes even more stress."

????Brown is co-founder of Cohen Brown Management Group, which has done time-management consulting for financial services industry clients like Merrill Lynch, Citibank (C), and Prudential (PRU). He says that at many big companies between 40% and 60% of people's time gets frittered away on distractions, especially from colleagues he calls time bandits. "Bosses are often the worst offenders," Brown observes, "because you feel you can't say no."

????Or can you? Since it's a safe bet that most, if not all, of your coworkers would also like to cut down on distractions, Brown suggests you all get together and agree on a system of what he calls Time Locks -- blocks of time at specific hours during the day (say, 2 p.m. to 4 p.m.) when you can focus on the work you're supposed to be doing.

????Getting everyone to agree to this takes some negotiation, Brown acknowledges. But convincing your officemates to make up a schedule with blocks of interruption-free time is often "a simple matter of going over the benefits to each of you," he says. Brown has seen teams and departments try it for a week or two and get so much more productive, and less stressed-out, that they've made Time Locks a permanent fixture.

????Moreover, Brown says, getting your boss on board and persuading him to limit his "check-ins," as you say, "is not as risky as people think it's going to be. The key is to emphasize that, if you can focus exclusively on your work during certain hours of the day, you'll be more productive, and it will help him meet his own deadlines. Time Locks are really to the benefit of managers, because bosses pay for the interruptions they cause, whether they realize it or not."

????What if he keeps "checking in" anyway? Then it's time for Plan B, described in detail (with a script, no less) in The Time Bandit Solution. Suggest a time to get together and talk after you've finished what you're working on. Brown's own subordinates, all Time Lock devotees, usually make appointments to sit down with him, saying something like, "I'll be working on the Ostrich project until four o'clock. Is it okay if I call you then?" As a manager, he says, "it would be foolish of me to interfere with their productivity."

????Maybe so, but Brown acknowledges that he's seen a few bosses who just can't or won't honor Time Locks. If yours is one of them, "unless you're independently wealthy, simply drop what you're doing and say, 'How can I help?'"

????One more thought: Taking back control of your time may mean changing some of your own habits. Deloitte's research shows that the average attention span among businesspeople now is about seven minutes -- in part because the average person checks his or her cell phone almost 150 times a day. If you decide to try Brown's approach to banishing interruptions, you might want to turn off your phone during your Time Locks, too. It's worth a try.

Talkback: If you've tried to cut down on distractions at the office, what has worked for you, and what hasn't? Leave a comment below.