In this article Rhonda Scharf describes what interrupting habit is and gives some tips on how we can break this habit.Stop your sentence mid-stream and apologize for being rude when you cut someone off.Ask for help from your loved ones.Place a sign on your phone desk and other places of your workspace and home that has some positive message.Count how many times a day you interrupt others. Set the goal daily until you can get to the point where you are not interrupting anyone.
Knock, knock!Who’s there?Interrupting cow.Interrupting cow wh—MOOOOO! Please pause for this interruptionI admit I have a very bad habit that is incredibly annoying. OK, so I have many annoying habits. But today I’ll talk about just one: I cut people off when they’re speaking.I don’t intend to be rude; I just seem to think that I know where the other person is going and that I can get there faster. I get so caught up in what I want to say that I stop listening and start sharing my own thoughts. Selfish, isn’t it? It’s also condescending: “What you are saying isn’t nearly as important as what I want to say.”I blame it on my family. I grew up next door to my grandparents, and we have a large extended family. When I was a kid, I’d march through the cow field and have dinner at Granny’s. As anyone in a large family knows, when you’re eating dinner with a lot of other family members, table manners tend to disappear—out of necessity. If there’s only one dinner roll on the table, you’d better grab it before anyone notices. You wouldn’t think of asking anyone else if they wanted it—because you would likely never get it yourself.Conversation was much the same way. If you happened to be quiet during dinner, no one noticed you were not speaking and no one would ask you what was bothering you. If you had something you wanted to share with everyone, you needed to speak up, speak quickly, and speak louder than everyone else.Since I’ve been communicating this way my entire life, it’s going to be a pretty hard habit to break.Regardless of how I learned the habit of interrupting others, I do need to break it, because it’s disrespectful, rude and unprofessional. I’m willing to bet that many other people are trying to break this habit as well.Here are some tips that I’m using:
It doesn’t matter what your reasons are for interrupting others, you and I both need to learn to break this bad and annoying habit.Now what were you doing before I interrupted you?
Let Harper and Obama do the worrying—at least, after five.
In this article Rhonda Scharf describes that how we can separate our family and work. At times we are too close to a situation to realize the impact we’re having. Sometimes we are too involved, too focused and possibly too self-absorbed to think of others. Think back to the last time you arrived home and told your family you’d a bad day. You probably expected them to cut you some slack, and perhaps forgive you for being in a bad mood.
Let’s get busy doing nothing
In this article Rhonda Scharf describes how much busy we are, and gives some ideas to be “out-busy”. We all work hard. Statistics tell us that about two-thirds of employees eat lunch at their desk each day. You need to get a break from work during the day. Your brain needs the break from being constantly surrounded by work. Even if your conscious mind is not working, your subconscious mind still is. Do something that is relaxing for you, something that isn’t considered “busy work.”
How to handle an angry outburst
In this article Rhonda Scharf describes how we can control our anger. The author describes that the average explosion of anger is 45 seconds long. Try being on the receiving end of 45 seconds of anger, frustration and undoubtedly unprofessional behavior. She says don’t focus on your anger; focus on hearing what the other person is saying. Don’t listen only hearing. Understand the person’s past words. She also shares her personal experiences how she controls the anger of herself and her opponent.
