The best laid plans of mice and men! What you are experiencing is not unusual and while I can give you some “stock” answers, they may not be on the mark if I don’t know more specifically what is causing the interruptions. That being said, here are some standard points I usually fall back upon when I have clients facing this dilemma:

• Are you reacting to those who are screaming the loudest or to the most important items? Often, those who are screaming for your attention are dealing with emergencies in their mind, but those emergencies can actually wait. It takes a lot of discipline to analyze the situation and hold those people off, assuming you can. How many times did you react immediately to a situation which would have resolved itself if you just waited? That doesn’t mean you don’t communicate. Text them and let you know you are on top of it, but will have to get back to them later.
• If there are too many emergencies, are you applying adequate preventive measures up-front to avoid these emergencies to begin with? If your workday includes back-to-back emergencies, you need to either set up systems to avoid these or you will eventually burn out. I have also seen this again and again in the industry and usually they are preventable. Not all of them are preventable, but the right preventive medicine leaves you dealing with a manageable number of emergencies. 

Dave Hershman is Senior VP of Sales of Weichert Financial and the top author in the mortgage industry. Dave has published seven books, as well as hundreds of articles and is the founder of the OriginationPro Marketing System and Mortgage School – the online choice for expert mortgage learning and marketing content. His site is www.OriginationPro.com and he can be reached at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..