Who has instant access to you and why? In today’s world of instantaneous everything, you don’t have time to truly examine all the information that is thrown at you. So, the question is how do you determine who and what is important to you?
How many times have you been in the flow of something…you are in the groove and really getting some work done – when a notification dings to tell you that you have a message. The problem with these interruptions is that the interruption isn’t just the time it takes to read the notification, but the time it takes you to get back into the flow of where you left off. If you can even get back there.
In order to help with information and communication overload, you need to create a path of harder resistance to you. Think of this like the secretaries of a major corporation. The secretary is like the gatekeeper – only giving access to those people who are worth the president’s time. The secretary is not going to let just anyone talk to the president as he is really busy and doesn’t have time to waste on matters that can be handled by someone else.
So the question is, who has direct access to you? There should be levels to this. For example, my immediate family has direct access to me, and I will answer their calls as soon as I can. For a salesperson, I might never return their call, especially if it is a cold call. This is where you set limits on who has direct access to you. I do not give out my cell number to just anyone as I don’t want people to have that direct access to me. They can call my home phone (which gets emailed to me) or email me and I can get back to them when it is convenient to me.
Teach people how you will communicate with them. My daughter helped me with this one. She would rather that I text her than call her. I learned this during her teenage years when she would respond immediately to a text but wouldn’t answer a phone call. I learned that if I wanted to say something to her, I needed to text her to get the best response. You can teach people how you will communicate with them and within what time frame. If you always respond immediately, you are teaching them that that is what they should expect. Determine your communication mode and response time to those in the different levels in your life. This is especially good for work life balance. Let work know that you are available during the workday but are off limits during family time. This will help you stay in the moment with your family and get the most out of your time with them.
Learn to say NO. There are many, many things that you can do in a day. If you don’t have plans, others will gladly fill your day with their plans. So, learn to say no. You can do this politely but realize that you don’t have to do everything that everyone else wants you to do. In fact, you can’t. You need to realize that when you say yes to one thing, you are saying no to another. Prioritize who and what is important and realize that those should be where the Yes comes in. If the person or activity is not a top priority, then say no. This way, you have margin to say yes to the priority people and activities.
Who has direct access to you and what is the best way for them to communicate with you? Learn to be more accessible to those who are a bigger priority and less accessible to those who aren’t as big a priority. Try this for a week and let us know in the comments below if it frees up some time and makes your life more manageable.