The reason I find interruptions stressful is twofold. Firstly, I have a lot of tasks which can take 2-3hrs to complete. But I can’t set aside time for these: I’m expected to be available everytime someone comes up to my desk - and that’s mostly for stuff that far more junior people should be doing.

I can’t ignore it until I’ve decided whehter or not it’s urgent/important enough to warrant my attention. And by then, I’ve sufficienly lost the thread of what I’m doing that I just as well go and do it.

The problem (hopefully) becomes much smaller on Dec. 31st, since I’m (hurrah) focussing on the 1/4 of my job that’s the most interesting, and can legitimately tell the other queries to go away. And then, 95% of the legitimate interruptions will be by phone, and from people that have already done the initial triage.

But the fundamental problem won’t go away: how do I legitimately block out time to do work in a culture that stresses availability?