Tips for moderating your open-door policy

In theory, an open-door policy seems an excellent trigger to greater productivity. Your subordinates can come to you at any time so they get their work done faster. In practice, however, you're discovering that the minute you start on something, one of your staff interrupts you and you end up fixing everybody else's problems at the expense of getting your work done. If you want to complete your tasks and still help everyone out, consider modifying your open-door policy using the following guidelines.

• Close your door so you can devote the first hour or two of the day dealing with emails and phone messages.
• Do one of the following for each message: respond immediately, delegate it to someone else, archive it, or trash it.
• You need to respond to emails within 24 hours.
• If you just ignore an email or decide to deal with it later, they'll just begin to pile up and you may never get around to them.
• It's also a good idea to turn off your email notifications so they don't keep popping up throughout the day, insisting that you deal with them.

• Schedule your open-door policy for the same hour or two each day, so your staff knows when they can approach you with something.
• During this time, don't plan anything other than minor tasks that you don't mind being interrupted.
• Ask your subordinates not to approach you at any other times unless necessary because you also need to get your work done. This strategy can also foster a sense of independence in your workers, who'll learn to rely on their own initiative instead of coming to you with every little problem.
• Depending on your job and the time of year, this scheduled time may not be enough. For example, you may be in retail during the holiday season or in charge of a product that's being released that day.
• During such periods, don't be afraid to expand your open-door time to an entire day or two.

• Devote the rest of the day to completing your other work tasks.
• For efficiency's sake and so that you can concentrate better, do similar tasks at the same time, such as dealing with invoices or composing reports.
• A publicly-shared calendar can help so your staff knows what your priorities are throughout the day.
• Several paid options are available, but a good freebie to start with is Google Calendar.