Speaker 1: Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of I Heart Radio.
Speaker 1: Good Morning, This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast.
Speaker 1: Today's tip is to just make that phone call, Particularly
Speaker 1: if you are working at home these days, you can
Speaker 1: save yourself all sorts of time and frustration and schedule
Speaker 1: clutter by using the actual telephone feature on your phone.
Speaker 1: As a bonus, as we're all engaged in social distancing,
Speaker 1: hearing a human voice can be a real mood boost too.
Speaker 1: Once upon a time, the only convenient way to communicate
Speaker 1: with someone who wasn't right in front of you was
Speaker 1: to call that person on the phone. Now, there were
Speaker 1: downsides to this. A ringing phone interrupts whatever the other
Speaker 1: person is doing right at the time you've chosen whether
Speaker 1: this is convenient for the other person or not. So
Speaker 1: asynchronous forms of communications seems like great solutions to this problem.
Speaker 1: As email and texts became available, phone calls fell out
Speaker 1: of favor. Indeed, many people think it might be rude
Speaker 1: or presumptuous to call someone without explicit permission, like you've
Speaker 1: sent a calendar invite to talk at two pm. This
Speaker 1: makes sense, but the net result is that people waste
Speaker 1: all sorts of time composing emails that go back and
Speaker 1: forth ten times to make a point that could have
Speaker 1: been handled in a two minute phone call, and maybe
Speaker 1: the point doesn't get made because it is shockingly easy
Speaker 1: to misinterpret written communication. Even worse, when all phone calls
Speaker 1: require appointments, people tend to set them on the hour
Speaker 1: or half hour, even when they'll take three minutes. If
Speaker 1: you know you've got to call at three pm, you
Speaker 1: stop focusing on deep work a little before that and
Speaker 1: cycle through headline checks and such after. If you have
Speaker 1: little appointments peppering your schedule all day, you might never
Speaker 1: get really into focused work. The schedule clutter makes you
Speaker 1: far less effective. Lots of things are changing now with
Speaker 1: the COVID nineteen pandemic, as many people work from home
Speaker 1: for the first time. Here's something that definitely should change.
Speaker 1: People need to start just picking up the phone when
Speaker 1: they need to ask a question or get clarification on something.
Speaker 1: While in the past you might have assumed you'd bump
Speaker 1: into your colleagues in the hall, now you won't. You'll
Speaker 1: need to actually reach out to anyone you want to
Speaker 1: talk to, and since you need to call, it's much
Speaker 1: more efficient if people just pick up the phone and
Speaker 1: do so. No twiddling your thumbs until the official three
Speaker 1: pm start. No winding up with small bits of hard
Speaker 1: to use time between appointments on the hour and half hour. Now, yes,
Speaker 1: it might feel risky to call, but if it's convenient,
Speaker 1: the other person will pick up, and if not, you
Speaker 1: will try again. But either approach is better than a
Speaker 1: twelve email chain that then accidentally gets four awarded to
Speaker 1: the wrong person, or setting appointments all day long that
Speaker 1: leads to time stress. And here's another upside to the phone.
Speaker 1: It's really nice to hear people's voices. My social distancing
Speaker 1: involves five children underfoot, but if your house is quieter,
Speaker 1: you might enjoy getting a real chat. If you can't
Speaker 1: go outside to talk to people, well that's the next
Speaker 1: best thing, and it can put a real smile on
Speaker 1: your face. So next time you find yourself sending a
Speaker 1: long email to ask if you can have a quick
Speaker 1: chat at two pm, just pick up the phone and
Speaker 1: call about the matter instead. If you're managing people, let
Speaker 1: them know that yes, you really do want them to
Speaker 1: call you call them to tell them that you'll get
Speaker 1: your work done and be on your way in the meantime,
Speaker 1: this is Laura. Thanks for listening and here's to making
Speaker 1: the most of our time. Hey, everybody, I'd love to
Speaker 1: hear from you. You can send me your tips, your questions,
Speaker 1: or anything else. Just connect with me on Twitter, Facebook
Speaker 1: and Instagram at Before Breakfast pod. That's B the number four,
Speaker 1: then Breakfast p o D. You can also shoot me
Speaker 1: an email at Before Breakfast podcast at i heeart media
Speaker 1: dot com that Before Breakfast is spelled out with all
Speaker 1: the letters. Thanks so much, I look forward to staying
Speaker 1: in touch. Before Breakfast is a production of I Heart Radio.
Speaker 1: For more podcasts from my heart Radio, visit the i
Speaker 1: heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to
Speaker 1: your favorite shows.