Phone calls can be a drag at work. I can’t tell you how many time I’ve received a phone call and requested the caller to send me an email instead. Cutting down on phone calls and limiting communication mainly to emails can save you a lot of time and it’s more efficient.
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Sometimes, when you’re on a roll at work, a phone call can break that flow and waste precious time as you frantically scribble notes down from the conversation. Meetings for small issues can also be a time drain, especially when the problem at hand isn’t particularly serious.
Successful entrepreneur and technology start-up investor Mark Cuban believes emails are the best way for business communication. He told Entrepreneur:
“I don’t like to do a lot of meetings and phone calls because of the productivity hit… Only if you’re writing me a check, I’ll do a meeting. If there’s a problem we need to solve it, I’ll do a call. Other than that, I keep communications limited to email. It’s more efficient.”
Though some people may find emails impersonal, but phone calls don’t necessarily make building interpersonal relationships any better; neither medium can convey facial expressions and body language.
Another email practice Cuban favours for staying on-task and making the most of his time is to dealing with the ‘bad news’ emails first:
” With my investments, I want the bad news first by email, and if it’s bad, I’ll jump on that… For the good, well, that’s what I expect. That’s why I invest in you. I don’t spend time on good news because there’s nothing to fix.”
Just don’t get carried away with checking your emails all the time and try not to let your digital inbox eat into your rest time.
[Via Entrepreneur]
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3 responses to “Minimise Phone Calls And Meetings To Stay Productive”
Voicemail: “Hi Zenu, can you call me”
Zenu subsequent voicemail: “Hi Ben, just calling you back. Let me know what you want”
Ben calls again: “Hi Zenu – can you send me that attachment?”
Zenu: “Sure.” Sends attachment in 5 seconds, then *head desk*
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I always leave plenty of detail in a voicemail. If you leave a ‘just call me’ voicemail – you will go to the back of the queue.
An entrepreneur is not an ordinary person. If you plan to organize and operate a business, you are taking a financial risk to do so — as well as personal risks and an investment in time and effort. But, sometimes the risks and investments pay off, as shown by this list of top 10 successful entrepreneurs in the world. Let’s continue the list:
Mate of mine has a system:
The higher up the food chain you are (above him), the less urgency he puts on returning your call, e-mail, text or whatever.
This way, he says, he’s not ‘bothered’ by those at the top of the ladder worrying him with trivial stuff that either they should already know, or should have been briefed on by their immediate underling.
Says he actually gets a lot more work done. Personally I envy him his steel cajones.