You enter your workspace every Monday morning, determined that this week is going to be different. You're going to be more productive. You're -- wait a minute. You've been interrupted by a co-worker. Now what were you thinking? Oh, yes. You're going to get more done because -- oops. Hold that thought. Another interruption, it's your boss.

Two hours later, you settle at your workstation, ready to resume what you were doing before. Exactly what were you doing? Before you can think, the phone rings. Another interruption.

The dictionary says interruption means `to hinder or stop the action or discourse of (someone) by breaking in upon.' In the workplace, it is often more serious than that, because needless distractions can directly affect the bottom line of a company. An employee who is jerked from one task to another, from one conversation to another, often isn't able to focus enough to complete a job properly and that can result in costly errors.

We've all heard the advice about cutting down on needless paperwork, getting our materials organized and using e-mail more efficiently. But what about that most pesky of problems the human being? You can't exactly press the pause or delete button on a person. How can you get these kinds of distractions under control? Stop distractions

Here are a few places to start: