Open-plan offices, small children and days it goes wrong

When you work in an open-plan office. Headphones are widely understood to mean that someone doesn't want to be disturbed, even with nothing playing. Book a meeting room for your first stretch if you can. Agree a signal with the people near you. Some teams set aside quiet hours in the morning, and it's worth proposing that. If your workplace allows days at home, put the thinking work on those days and the meetings on the others.

When your manager expects instant replies. Chapter 7 suggested the conversation. If it fails, make the stretches shorter. Twenty-five minutes of protected time, followed by five minutes of replies, keeps you within any reasonable definition of responsive. You'd still be switching far less than you do now.

When you have several bosses. Each of them thinks their work is your one thing. The list you make in the morning is your evidence. "I have these five things from three people. Which would you like first?" That hands the ordering back to the people with the authority to do it, and it generally produces a sensible answer.

When everything really is urgent. Occasionally it is. There's a deadline day, a system down, or a family emergency. On those days you'll juggle, and that's fine. It's still faster to do urgent things one after another than all at once, even if each gets only ten minutes. Write the order down and work through it.

When you're at home with small children. Chapter 18 covered this. Lower your expectations for attention-heavy tasks to match the time you really have. Be kind to yourself about the state of the house.

When the task is too big to finish. Most important tasks are. The stopping point doesn't have to be the end of the task. It can be a meaningful piece, like a section or a draft, or a decision. Finishing pieces gives you most of the benefits of finishing. A piece can be handed over, and it stops taking up room in your head.

When you slip. You'll have a day when you look up at four o'clock and find nine things open. Don't treat it as proof that the method doesn't suit you. Stop, write down the pile and pick one. Do a single stretch before you go home, so that the day ends with one thing finished. Then look at what set it off. It's usually a bad night's sleep, or a task you were dreading, or a morning that started in the inbox.

When it's always been like this. Go back to the caution at the start. Some people have found it very hard since childhood to stay with tasks, organise their time and finish things, across school, work and home, and it has cost them. If that's you, the NHS advice is to see a GP about an assessment for ADHD. Waiting times can be long. In the meantime the external supports in this book are the kind often recommended. That means written lists, one visible task, parking notes and a cleared desk. They help because they take over some of the work that attention finds hard.

When the real problem is too much work. If you've worked in stretches for a month, your finished lists are long, and you're still drowning, the workload is the problem. The finished lists will be useful evidence when you have that conversation with your manager.