How do you tactfully tell someone to leave you alone?

[wartrace]

I have to "work" this weekend but there is absolutely nothing happening there. The plant is shutting down permanently & we are in the midst of a two week production shutdown. I still have to put in my hours until I leave at the end of the month. I don't need to impress anyone with my work so I figured I would spend the time constructively & study for a business I am thinking about getting into after the layoff.
The problem is another guy who also doesn't have anything to do will be there both days. He is kind of simple minded and doesn't see anything wrong with sitting down at my desk when I am obviously busy/preoccupied and yakking about trivial bull crap. It is as if he can't possibly be quiet for more than ten minutes without blurting out something. In the past he has actually come over to my desk during breaks to read his newspaper while I was trying to study. I don't know why he does that when there is a big table in the middle of the room with chairs to sit at. It's okay when other people are there because he kind of wanders from person to person. This time its just him & me.

I need to not waste this opportunity to do something productive over the weekend. I don't want to hurt this guys feelings or be rude. I just have no desire to spend twenty four hours of my time this weekend chatting about things I really don't care about. I need this time for myself.

What would be a nice way to tell him to go away? I could move the chair away from my desk but I am sure he will move it right back.

[Bucky]

1. Your thinly veiled message to me is recieved.

I'm sorry that I bothered you so much. Your "friend at work" will watch himself from now on.

[Tommy_Carcetti]

2. Does he look like this?

"And I said, I don't care if they lay me off either, because I told, I told Bill that if they move my desk one more time, then, then I'm, I'm quitting,.. I'm going to quit. And, and I told Dom too, because they've moved my desk... four times already this year, and I used to be over by the window, and I could see... the squirrels, and they were merry, but then, they switched... from the Swingline to the Boston stapler, but I kept my Swingline stapler because it didn't bind up as much,.. and I kept the staples for the Swingline stapler and it's not okay because if they take my stapler then I'll have to... I'll set the building on fire..."

[jobycom]

3. You can't.

You either tell him to get lost, or you study some other time. You can try saying "can't talk, gotta finish this," but if he doesn't listen, you have to choose one or the other. Merry Christmas.

One other option would be to start lecturing him on what you are studying. That might bore him enough to leave, although more than likely he'll just play along looking for a chance to hijack the conversation back to him.

[lunatica]

4. Just tell him to leave you alone because you're doing something

If he brings the newspaper to read then ask him to read it at his desk or at the table. Tell him that if he's in your area he's distracting you.

He probably won't be hurt at all since it seems he doesn't have much sensitivity to subtle messages that people don't want him around

[Deep13]

5. Just say you'ld like to chat, but you really need to read your stuff.

Thanks, talk to you later. Something like that.

[guitar man]

6. beans work pretty well

:D