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 save time by picking up the phone.
Speaker 1: Once upon a time, as in thirty years ago, people
Speaker 1: who wish to communicate instantaneously with someone generally had to
Speaker 1: pick up their phones and call them, and there were
Speaker 1: downsides to this method. Sometimes people were out and before
Speaker 1: cell phones, that meant their phones weren't with them. Sometimes
Speaker 1: people were busy doing other things. Explaining what you want
Speaker 1: on the phone has never been easy. You have to
Speaker 1: put yourself out there. The recipient of the call would
Speaker 1: have to respond in some way, even if she or
Speaker 1: he hadn't been anticipating the question. Email and texts have
Speaker 1: solved many of these problems. People can read and respond
Speaker 1: when it's convenient for them. You can explain what you
Speaker 1: want and disembodied words, so any rejection or uninto faded
Speaker 1: responses don't hit you so personally. Because of these upsides,
Speaker 1: we have a tendency to email or text to the
Speaker 1: exclusion of phone calls. Indeed, there are some people who
Speaker 1: are basically never pick up the phone to call someone,
Speaker 1: and that's a shame because calling is often the most
Speaker 1: efficient way to do anything complicated. Arranging dinner with a friend,
Speaker 1: the back and forth on scheduling, restaurant choice, a reminder
Speaker 1: that your friend was going to ask her roommate to join,
Speaker 1: but oh wait, she's got a shellfish allergy, so maybe
Speaker 1: not the crab shack, but how about that Mexican place
Speaker 1: across the street. All this can easily stretch to a
Speaker 1: dozen emails or texts. While a ringing phone technically interrupts
Speaker 1: whatever you're doing, it does so once you chat through
Speaker 1: the shellfish allergy issue and make a plan, then you
Speaker 1: are done. Whereas those dozen texts will interrupt you a
Speaker 1: dozen times, that's not more efficient. The phone also allows
Speaker 1: you to hear emotions and react ba Based on that,
Speaker 1: you can soften responses and reassure people, so that makes
Speaker 1: it a good choice for any conversations that might be sensitive.
Speaker 1: There's some evidence that emails are perceived more negatively than
Speaker 1: the sender intended. The vocal calibrations you hear on the
Speaker 1: phone allow you to interpret the sender's true intentions. Why
Speaker 1: does this matter for efficiency, Well, misunderstandings waste all kinds
Speaker 1: of time. Your colleague spends hours wondering whether you're mad
Speaker 1: at him, rather than on advancing your team's project. So
Speaker 1: go ahead and pick up the phone next time you
Speaker 1: need to work through anything complicated. If you know the person,
Speaker 1: you actually don't need to arrange a time to call,
Speaker 1: You can just call. The sheer logistics of arranging a
Speaker 1: time can eat up any time savings. Instead, learn to
Speaker 1: communicate through this relatively old fashioned method, and you can
Speaker 1: spend your save time doing other things like cleaning out
Speaker 1: your inbox in the meantime. This is thanks for listening,
Speaker 1: and here's to making the most of our time. Hey everybody,
Speaker 1: I'd love to hear from you. You can send me
Speaker 1: your tips, your questions, or anything else. Just connect with
Speaker 1: me on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram at Before Breakfast pod
Speaker 1: that's B the number four then Breakfast p o D.
Speaker 1: You can also shoot me an email at Before Breakfast
Speaker 1: podcast at i heeart media dot com. That Before Breakfast
Speaker 1: is spelled out with all the letters. Thanks so much,
Speaker 1: I look forward to staying in touch. Before Breakfast is
Speaker 1: a production of I Heart Radio. For more podcasts from
Speaker 1: my heart Radio, visit the i heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts,
Speaker 1: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows,