In many conversations with deeply skilled individuals, a common theme often emerges - the value of deep, uninterrupted work.

It is in these highly focused periods that true productivity thrives, creativity flows freely, and satisfaction from work is high.

This concept is explored in Cal Newport’s book - “Deep Work” where he emphasizes and makes the case for the importance of intense concentration devoid of distractions to produce high-quality work.

Yet, how often do we find ourselves on either end of an interruption? How often do we disrupt someone else’s flow for something that might not be as urgent as it appears?

Not many things are truly urgent Link to heading

Let’s talk about urgency.

Reflect on it - how frequently do you interrupt others at work as a knee-jerk reaction to outside stimuli or your own “brilliant idea”? I know that I still do that way to often.

Let’s reflect on the times we interrupted someone else’s day.

Could you have practiced patience and batched multiple of these urgent things together and handled them as a batch in an already scheduled 1-1 or similar?

And when looking back at them now, how urgent were they really?

Interruptions has an associated cost Link to heading

Context switching, or task juggling, can significantly disrupt focus. It takes roughly 20 minutes to regain full concentration after a switch, resulting in considerable productivity loss.

Constant interruption leads to increased stress, errors, and decreased creativity. It undermines the ability to perform deep work, where high-quality and highly efficient output is produced.

Remember - true urgency is rare; focus is gold. Value it as such.