How to cut down on interruptions during the day

[Anonymous]

I work in a role that is largely a support function for a team. I’m not an admin, although I sometimes feel like I am treated like one. I am interrupted constantly with people asking me to find things for them that they can/should locate themselves. It usually comes in the form of an IM. Do you have any suggestions on how to minimize these disruptions because it’s getting to where I’m struggling to get work done because of so many of these types of requests.

[Anonymous]

Are the things they want documents? Assuming yes and assuming they are on SharePoint, can you make a landing page that people can bookmark and easily reach the frequently needed docs?

If it's something more individual than that ... it kinda feels like that falls in "support person for a team." Maybe you need a separate inbox and work queue so thst you can address all the requests in one hour of the day instead of getting IMs.

[Anonymous]

put them on mute and check once an hour.

[Anonymous]

If you’re the low man on the totem pole, you have to suck it up. Make yourself indispensable; people will want you around.

Maybe mute notifications and answer them a couple of times a day. But if your office culture is one of IMs, you just have to deal.

[Anonymous]

What is your work other than supporting them?

[Anonymous]

We need more details on the types of requests and what exactly your role is.

[Anonymous]

Use AI to develop a bot that can connect to your SP or internal sites to direct people where to find this information.

[Anonymous]

Is finding these things in your job description? If yes, say you are working on a project and will find it in a bit. Or do it all one an hour or twice a day. If it's not in your job description, tell them as such.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We need more details on the types of requests and what exactly your role is.

This. But whatever it is, you should have a discussion with your manager about balancing your responsibilities. Would a response time of max one hour ( or two hours) work for you and the team? And/or are they asking questions they should be able to resolve easily on their own?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We need more details on the types of requests and what exactly your role is.

I work in sales support and prepare presentations, proposals and other sales-related work product. I’m asked to find things that are all on Sharepoint but people come to me because they know I will find it faster than they can, but it’s all there, available to everyone.

I like the idea of a Sharepoint landing page and muting notifications.

[Anonymous]

Q and A list?
Where to Links?

[Anonymous]

Yes, SharePoimt landing pages, FAQs, and a training. I would review the IMs from the last 6 weeks to create the FAQ and or tell your boss you want to conduct a brief training for all staff. No, just record a brief training and then send that to anyone who asks. I think they will figure it themselves then.

[Anonymous]

First, control the flow. Don’t respond immediately; that just encourages people to continue treating you like a vending machine. Make them wait.

Build an FAQ (or when your org gets Copilot, you can just use that or even build an agent to respond to people!)

When people pong, respond with: “here is a link to an FAQ and some self help resources. If this doesn’t resolve your question, please email me and I will respond when I am able.”

[Anonymous]

Tell them to fill out a form and email you the request. That is typical and practical for any support request.

Tell each of them, or in a group email, that for efficiency sake and for tracking purposes (and later reporting), you kindly ask they send requests in writing via email so you can work on them in order and file for future reference. And at end of month, you can analyze day to day requests to come up with efficient processes, file sharing, organization and communication to make the office run more efficiently.

Come up with an easy online form or email format. Definitely stop the IM requests… I hate IMs and often ignore them (forces people to come talk to me face to face).