Quick Tip: How to Discourage Co-Workers from Interrupting You

headphones = do not distrubSituation: You are working on something important and don’t want your office colleagues to interrupt you during that time. How do you achieve this?

Solution: The first option is that you hang a huge “do not disturb” sign outside your cubicle and pay no attention to the co-worker who just dropped in for a quick chat.

OK, since that may sound a bit rude, here’s a better alternative - wear a pair of headphones (even if you are no fan of music) and this should alone discourage your co-workers from interrupting you.

The idea is that if you are wearing a single headphone, it should convey the impression that you are open for chat as long as its brief but if you are wearing both the headphones, the other person should not bother distracting you.

Another advantage of wearing headphones at work is that you are less likely to get distracted by surrounding noises like that ringing phone or the coffee dispenser.

The video tip was original published on Facebook by Blank Spaces. But please don’t play this at work as the video uses slightly NSFW language somewhere around 00:25.

Related: Make Noise-Blocking Headphones at Home

Amit Agarwal

Amit Agarwal

Google Developer Expert, Google Cloud Champion

Amit Agarwal is a Google Developer Expert in Google Workspace and Google Apps Script. He holds an engineering degree in Computer Science (I.I.T.) and is the first professional blogger in India.

Amit has developed several popular Google add-ons including Mail Merge for Gmail and Document Studio. Read more on Lifehacker and YourStory

Awards & Titles

Digital Inspiration has won several awards since it's launch in 2004.

Google Developer Expert

Google Developer Expert

Google awarded us the Google Developer Expert award recogizing our work in Google Workspace.

ProductHunt Golden Kitty

ProductHunt Golden Kitty

Our Gmail tool won the Lifehack of the Year award at ProductHunt Golden Kitty Awards in 2017.

Microsoft MVP Alumni

Microsoft MVP Alumni

Microsoft awarded us the Most Valuable Professional (MVP) title for 5 years in a row.

Google Cloud Champion

Google Cloud Champion

Google awarded us the Champion Innovator title recognizing our technical skill and expertise.

Email Newsletter

Sign up for our email newsletter to stay up to date.

We will never send any spam emails. Promise.