Reducing Stress Through Meditation.

Give your complete and undivided attention to the task at hand.

Dealing with interruptions is common within the work place. It is not the interruptions, but the changes in routine or schedule that cause additional stress. This stress results from trying to catch up to where you wanted to be or to get back on track. Taking steps to limit interruptions will increase your work efficiency.

What do you do if you're in a position where constant interruption is the norm; i.e., you are in charge of a switchboard, a customer service counter, a take-out, or a restaurant lunch counter? Practice the art of doing one thing at a time, which I discuss at length in The Complete Idiot's Guide to Managing Your Time. Here are some additional pointers.

1. Recognize that however quickly you speed from task to task, you'll do your best work if you give your complete and undivided attention to the task at hand, for however brief a time that might be. In other words, begin to develop the concentration powers so that if you only have 10 to 15 seconds to focus on what confronts you, these 10 or 15 seconds are highly directed to the task at hand. Let me give you some examples:

You're waiting to board a flight, when an announcement is made in the lobby that the flight has been canceled. All of a sudden, a swarm of angry customers lines up in front of the gate agent, looking to quickly re-route their passage. How does the gate agent handle this? The agent focuses on one passenger at a time, intently focusing on that passenger's previous itinerary, looking down at the computer monitor to see what options are available, and working on that particular customer's needs to completion. Whether it takes a minute or five minutes, a skilled gate agent stays relatively calm. He or she knows that the fastest and easiest way to handle the situation is to handle one customer at a time. This is also the way to remain in a tough job, and keep stress at a manageable level.

2. Suppose you have five tasks confronting you and are stymied as to how to proceed. What's the fastest and easiest way to tackle the five tasks, and keep your stress in check? The answer: to put them in order of importance and then handle them one at a time. Child's play you say -- anyone could have figured that out. Anyone could, but hardly anyone does.