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Ann constantly has to stop what she’s doing to handle requests—from colleagues, customers, and her father, owner of the Manila business where she works in sales. “It’s ‘Where’s my order?’ or ‘Why do I have to wait for my delivery?’ or ‘This is urgent’ all the time,” she says. “Sometimes my head aches so much from all the pressure, I have to slip outside for a little air. Everybody wants everything right now, and there’s only one of me.”

Some workdays feel like a long drive down a road dotted with red lights: Just as you get going, something else slows you down. The phone won’t stop ringing, the fax machine is jammed, an urgent memo appears in your inbox, and you can’t find the pens you know you just got from the supply closet. When a coworker pops into your cubicle to ask if you have a minute, it’s all you can do to keep from screaming, “No, I don’t.”

“On the surface, handling interruptions is all about time management, but the underlying issue is the feeling that you’re losing control,” says Joseph Weintraub, professor of management at Babson College in Wellesley, Massachusetts, who has studied stress in the workplace.

We’re all maxed out. According to Harvard University economist Juliet Schor, author of The Overworked American, the average worker puts in 160 more hours of work a year now than she did at the end of the 1960’s—hours we’d rather be using for ourselves. But thanks to the trend toward layoffs and downsizing, we don’t feel we have the right to complain. Meanwhile, fewer people have to do the same amount of work. And given that a recent survey of Fortune 500 managers showed they want their employees to have more “customer sensitivity,” it’s no surprise we can be snappish when our schedule is thrown off. How are you supposed to get anything done when you’re always being asked to drop everything and do something else?

As a conferencing coordinator at a Manila online service, Jennifer often finds herself juggling phone calls from subscribers, tracking invoices, and sorting out several unrelated technical questions, all at once.

“This jobs depends on your ability to do fourteen different things at the same time,” she says. “I have Post-it notes all over the place reminding me what I have and haven’t done, trying to make sure nothing gets overlooked. I am customer support, hear me scream.

Just Say No!
Some companies give employees permission to fend off interruptions. One high-tech firm has installed mock traffic lights on all cubicles, so employees can signal their availability with a green light for “Come in,” a yellow light for “Not now.” Another has a set of policy that Monday mornings are private: no meetings or interruptions allowed. If you work in that kind of office, be grateful. If not, it’s up to you to guard your time.

“There are only two answers to ‘Got a minute?’: ‘Yes, I do’ and ‘No, I don’t,’ says James Campbell Quick, editor of the Journal of Occupational Health Psychology. “You need to have your agenda in order before you can sort out interruptions and determine whether you need to deal with them now.”

Here’s how to do that:
1. Decide if the interruption will prevent you from doing your job.
“Something might be urgent but totally unimportant,” Quick explains. If a rush request falls into your area of responsibility, you should be ready to adjust your priorities right away. If it’s going to distract you from a task that takes precedence, you can ask even your boss to come back later. Practice saying, “I don’t have time for this right now, but why don’t we meet at 2 pm.?”

2. If disruptions are inherent in your job, there’s no use stressing about them.
Change your attitude—or your job. As the coordinator of a university learning center, Jill supervises 69 student tutors and advises 10 or 15 more students each day. “I can refer routine stuff to the receptionist, but everything else comes to me,” she says. “I frequently have to drop everything to deal with people who need immediate help.”

Recently, she and a colleague arranged to stagger their schedules: Jill now comes in at 8 a.m.—two hours before the office opens—and leaves at 5 p.m. Her coworker comes in late and stays until closing time. “Sometimes those two early hours are the only time I have all day to do the paperwork that keeps the office open and functioning,” says Jill.

3. Take preventive steps to eliminate interruptions before they happen.
If you have a second chair in your office, for example, keep a stack of books and papers on it so people can’t just walk in, sit down, and start chatting.

“I ask people to send me their questions via email instead of walking into my office,” says Leonara , 34, a public relations manager. “Eighty percent of the time, it’s not so urgent that I have to handle it right away.”

One handy technique: Close your office door, but post a note with a specific time when you’ll be free. Always follow through by making yourself available at the promised time.

4. Maintain a running list of current projects, updated every day.
“My job involves keeping track of so many things at once that I can’t pay attention to any one task for too long,” says Farai, a news political editor. “My system for fending off chaos is to keep a list of things to do and people to call.”

5. If you’re distracted by something in your environment that’s beyond your control.
Jackhammers outside your office, for instance, or a brownout—find ways to cope, whether that means buying earplugs or going to a well-lit library. If you can do something about it, do it now. Fix the broken desk drawer instead of constantly wrestling with it. Change the burned-out lightbulb. Buy your own dictionary rather than waste half an hour every day looking for the office copy.

6. The most insidious distraction is the type you can create for yourself.
You start to read a letter, then you realize you have a question for the writer. As you look up her phone number, you notice your Rolodex is disorganized. So you weed out the old numbers and add numbers, and run out of cards. You go to the supply closet, and before you know it, it’s 5 p.m. and you haven’t even finished the letter that started it all. Get out of your own way! Ask yourself: “What’s the most important thing to do right now?” Do it. Reward yourself with a snack, a walk or a quick break, and then repeat the process. Don’t let yourself get sidetracked by busywork.

7. Find a place to hide.
Leonora runs away from the office on days when the phone won’t stop ringing. “I forward all my calls to my assistant, take whatever I’m working on and go to the office lounge,” she says. “It’s quiet and serene. Being there helps me relax and get focused.”

8. If someone is constantly asking for your attention, maybe the two of you aren’t communicating efficiently.
“I’ve learned from my more experienced colleagues to pay attention to people’s moods and emotions as well as the issues,” says Farai. “She taught me, ‘When so-and-so is acting a certain way, he’s about to have a nervous breakdown, so deal with it right away.’ Now I give priority to people who are nervous, jittery, annoying, or fragile, and I try to get their problems out of the way quickly.” Frequent interruptions from one specific person may also mean that person deserves more attention than you originally thought. On the other hand, you may simply have a coworker who wants you to drop everything for her all the time. She may not understand or care that she’s inconveniencing you.

“What bothers me most are people who want me to do things for them instead of asking me how to do those things themselves,” Leonora says. “I don’t mind helping. What I mind is doing their job for them.”

If you’re being sucked dry in this way, confront the chronic offender and insist that she come to you only when she has no other choice. “Keep the focus on what you notice, what you feel, and what you want,” Joseph Weintrub advises. “You might say something like ‘I’ve noticed that you come into my office four times a day, with the same questions. I feel my time isn’t being respected, and I want you to schedule our meetings in advance and limit them to one a day.”

9. If you like to wander into other people’s offices to chat or you ask for help because it’s easier and more social than going it alone, you may be an offender as well.
“I’m as bad as anyone else, maybe worse,” Lisa confesses. “When I need something, nothing can wait. I actually stand in front of people who are on the phone and nag them to get off.”

If you refrain from interrupting until you must and then ask immediately for what you need, your colleagues will do the same for you. Ask first if this is a good time to talk—and take a rain check graciously if the answer is no.

10. Some people are less able than others to handle stress.
If you’re the hypersensitive type, consider looking for a new position with fewer distractions. But if you’re just feeling the pressure of too many demands on too little time, do things that help you keep your emotional balance: Breathe deeply, meditate, go for a walk, attend a stress-management seminar. Remember you aren’t determining the fate of global war! No matter how many “urgent” requests land on your desk today, others will have taken their place by tomorrow.

“Sometimes I use the mute button on the phone so I can rant about people while they’re talking to me,” Jennifer admits. “That works wonders. And sometimes that whole atmosphere gets to ridiculous, what can you do but laugh?”