I Tracked Every "Quick Question" for a Month. 74% Took Over 10 Minutes

I started timing every interruption I labeled a "quick question." Slack messages, DMs, taps on the shoulder. Anything that felt like it would take two minutes.

The average was 11 minutes. The longest was 40. Most of them required context I had to rebuild from scratch because I had been in the middle of something else.

I didn't stop answering them. But I started batching them. Two windows a day, 15 minutes each. The "quick questions" still got answered. The rest of my day stopped being shredded into pieces.

The people asking didn't mind. They just adjusted to the rhythm. I was the only one who thought instant availability was required.

How much of your day is actually yours once you account for other people's quick questions?