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.

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 started batching them. Two windows a day, 15 minutes each. The questions still got answered. The rest of my day stopped being shredded into pieces.

The people asking didn't mind. They just adjusted. 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?