Speaker 1: Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of iHeartRadio. Good Morning,
Speaker 1: This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast. Today's
Speaker 1: tip is that you don't have to schedule calls in
Speaker 1: your personal life and your professional life. If you want
Speaker 1: to talk with someone, you can just pick up the phone.
Speaker 1: So I'm guessing that you occasionally get an unexpected call
Speaker 1: from someone you know. You may wonder why they are calling.
Speaker 1: Perhaps you even worry that you forgot about something, or
Speaker 1: perhaps that something terrible has happened. But if you pick
Speaker 1: up the phone and discover that the person was just
Speaker 1: thinking of you and wanted to say hi, the call
Speaker 1: will almost certainly brighten your day. And if the unexpected
Speaker 1: call is from a colleague who has a quick question,
Speaker 1: I am guessing you would much prefer that call to
Speaker 1: receiving a multi paragraph email that would take you fifteen
Speaker 1: minutes to respond to. In both of these cases, you
Speaker 1: weren't mad about receiving the call. So it stands to
Speaker 1: reason that most people you know well enough to call
Speaker 1: will also be perfectly fine with hearing from you unannounced.
Speaker 1: Yet I know a great many of us are incredibly
Speaker 1: reluctant to just pick up the phone. And call someone
Speaker 1: without a scheduled appointment. I am not sure why this is.
Speaker 1: I am old enough to remember when there wasn't a
Speaker 1: great way to communicate beyond phone calls with people. Your
Speaker 1: home phone would ring and someone would answer it who
Speaker 1: knew who might be calling. Texting an email make communications
Speaker 1: so much easier. But the trouble is that arranging a
Speaker 1: call often takes as much time and energy is simply
Speaker 1: picking up the phone and calling right then. I see
Speaker 1: this especially with people's work schedules. Someone has a quick question,
Speaker 1: the sort you might casually ask while stopping by someone's cubicle,
Speaker 1: But with many folks working from home these days, there
Speaker 1: are fewer casual interactions like that. So you get on
Speaker 1: someone's calendar, but they might be booked up until a
Speaker 1: day or two from now, and then you are on
Speaker 1: the calendar for thirty minutes because that's the default, and
Speaker 1: you and the person have to look at the appointment
Speaker 1: and stop other things to get in the mindset, and
Speaker 1: all this winds up being quite a waste of time.
Speaker 1: Just pick up the phone. If the person can answer,
Speaker 1: then great. If they can't, you could call back, or
Speaker 1: you can text, or you can email. But it's worth
Speaker 1: a shot. Likewise, in our personal lives, phone calls are
Speaker 1: a great leisure time activity for connecting with people who
Speaker 1: we can't see in person. Lots of folks are busy
Speaker 1: with kids and activities and work. It's hard to get
Speaker 1: together for dinner, but fifteen minutes after kid bedtime could
Speaker 1: turn into a fun catch up time. You might not
Speaker 1: know exactly when your kids or your friend's kids will
Speaker 1: be down, but maybe there is a ninety percent confidence
Speaker 1: interval after nine pm. So just pick up the phone
Speaker 1: and call your friend. Then if she can't answer, she
Speaker 1: can't answer, but maybe she can, and you'll have a
Speaker 1: lot more fun talking than scrolling around to see what
Speaker 1: Netflix has on offer. Now. I know that if you
Speaker 1: are not accustomed to just calling people, this might all
Speaker 1: feel quite awkward. They might think you have big news
Speaker 1: to share or something, so you'll just have to assure
Speaker 1: them that no, you are not having another baby. You
Speaker 1: just wanted to chat. Eventually, you will become the person
Speaker 1: who just chats and people won't wonder what is going
Speaker 1: on now. Of course, I am not saying not to
Speaker 1: schedule calls. I know people who have phone or FaceTime
Speaker 1: dates with friends and relatives and treasure that time. And
Speaker 1: if your boss is really booked solid, maybe you are
Speaker 1: best off trying to protect time on her calendar and
Speaker 1: speak with her about all the matters you need to
Speaker 1: address at that time. But you don't have to schedule
Speaker 1: and potentially reschedule all your calls. You can also just
Speaker 1: pick up the phone. Truly, that is how it used
Speaker 1: to work. All the time, we use our phones for
Speaker 1: so much, from directions to entertainment, that we forget what
Speaker 1: they were actually created for. It might be worth rediscovering
Speaker 1: that function in the meantime. This is Laura. Thanks for listening,
Speaker 1: and here's to making the most of our time. Thanks
Speaker 1: for listening to Before Breakfast. If you've got questions, ideas,
Speaker 1: or feedback, you can reach me at Laura at Laura
Speaker 1: vandercam dot com. Before Breakfast is a production of iHeartMedia.
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