Work Optimization Key #2: Control Your Communications
KEY POINTS:
1. The average person checks their email 30 times per hour during the workday. This is a perfect example of the many causes of distraction and inefficiency in your day.
2. Similarly, our many notifications steal our attention when we’re not at “work”. We’re living in an attention deficit world.
3. Consider implementing communication batching, tracking email time, avoiding work outside of work, making communications concise, and using the phone or tools like Slack as strategies to combat the notification-checking addiction.
“Efficiency is doing better what is already being done.”
Email is one of the worst culprits for distraction in the workplace. The average worker receives 109 emails per day! According to the National Center for Biotechnology Information, the average number of times an office worker checks their email inbox is 30 times per hour.
Similarly, our many notifications steal our attention when we’re not at “work”. We’re living in an attention deficit world.
However, there are many practices you can put in place to curb notification distraction. Here are a few tips you can try:
1) Batch your emails. To avoid the never-ending onslaught, you can batch your emails. Batching, a concept popularized by Tim Ferriss (Author of The Four Hour Workweek and Tools of Titans), is setting aside a specific time to check emails and not allowing them to distract you otherwise. For example, you might set aside the last 15 minutes of every hour to check email. You might designate certain hours of the day when you check them. Then turn off notifications and do not allow them to pull your attention away from the task at hand. There are many software programs that allow you to block email during certain times. This practice will allow you to enter a focused state of flow where you can do your best. At its simplest, when you are doing something important, close your email app.
2) Track your email time. If you’re not sure how much of your time email is stealing, track it. Start a journal to record how much time you actually spend on emails a day. Then take that time and break it into focused sections. Instead of spending 2 minutes here and 30 minutes there, set aside a specific 10 or 15 minutes at regular stages of the day to tackle them. Treat these sessions like sprints you do throughout the day. You’ll be surprised that people generally don’t notice if you get back to them in an hour instead of instantly.
3) No work outside of work. Try to disengage from work communication outside of business hours. You can set up an automated reply message explaining that messages received after 6:00 p.m. or before 6:00 a.m from Monday to Friday and during the weekends will be responded to on the next business day. They can indicate that if the matter is urgent, contacting them on a cell is appropriate if needed.
4) Get to the point. Instead of wasting people’s time, make your emails concise and to the point. Another communication option is Slack, a tool that allows you to create channels that include only the relevant people. When you do communicate using that App, you don’t use a subject button. You don’t need to comb through a contacts list. Everyone will see whatever you post. It’s almost like texting - short, quick, and very effective. Slack also has a “do not disturb” option, blocking and saving messages outside of work hours.
5) Consider using the phone. In this digital age, we tend to see talking on the phone as an outdated practice, but there are times when it can be far more efficient than email, particularly if the topic requires a lot of back and forth. If you have an issue that would be better handled on the phone, schedule time to call the people to talk them through it. It will save everyone time in the long run.
This Week’s Exercise: Do Not Disturb
By now you've made a list of all of the possible distractions and a plan for how you can eliminate them during work time. The next step towards eliminating distractions is stopping the barrage of messages we constantly receive.
This week, try to eliminate distractions by implementing a “Do Not Disturb” protocol. When you’re trying to focus on something, be it at work or outside of work, silence your phone (or even better put it in another room), close any windows on your computer that aren’t essential to your work, and disable desktop notifications.
If you’re anxious about not being available to respond to people right away, remember that after your deep focus you can turn on notifications again. Good luck!
Bonus Material
Click here to watch Greg and Bruce discussing this topic further.
Check out this article on overcoming distracting habits like checking emails!
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