Effective Communications – Your Key To Saving Time
When I was working in Corporate America, I always wondered why so many people were working so many hours and not being very productive. One thing that I noticed is that people are not very effective with managing their communications. For example, I would notice that my co-workers would have a desk phone, a cell phone, a pager, a couple of e-mail accounts, and an instant messenger. When someone wanted to get a hold of them, they would simply go through each device until they got through. For example, someone would call the desk phone and leave a message, then leave a message on the cell phone, then the pager, then fire off a couple of e-mails, and finally try the instant messenger. Once they made contact, they would get their question answered, and off they would go. However, the other person would have to ferret thorugh the voice mails and e-mails, thus wasting valuable time.
You may not think this is a big deal, but when you stop to consider how many people contact you in a day, this can waste hours of time. Perhaps you are the type that is a slave to your phone, where you answer every call right when it comes in? Come on, admit it! You know who I am talking about. If this sounds like you, here are a couple of things you can do to be more effective in your communications, and save yourself hours of time everyday:
1. Decide on one technology as your primary method of communication
Get rid of all the multiple methods of getting a hold of you. This will save a ton of time just by having all of your communications coming to one place. If you have to, you can keep it to two - e-mail and phone.
2. Coach people on how to communicate with you
By telling everyone the best way to get a hold of you, you can eliminate a lot of wasted time. For example, if you tell your customers that the best way to get a hold of you is your cell phone, and that you don't respond to e-mail, often times they will follow your lead on this.
3. Install some boundaries!
This is a huge one. What is it costing you to be a slave to your phone? Most of the time, the person calling you is just calling to waste your time anyways. End this problem once and for all by putting a message on your voice mail stating what time you plan on returning phone calls. Then, simply don't answer your phone. You can do the same thing with e-mail - answer them twice a day - at lunch and at the end of the day. This alone will save you an hour a day. By effectively managing your communication methods, you can save hours of time each day, and be much more productive!
