Keeping up with our daily communication is becoming more and more difficult.
Not easier.
Just now I received a text message, on my business cellphone from some number I don't know... saying... "Ok Now what?"
Huh?
My email inbox says I now have 1,308 new unread messages...
Twitter says I have 1,436 unread "direct messages".... And I know I'm more than 30 days behind on my @replies on Twitter... (and I'm feeling so guilty about that...)
Every once in a while I'll pop in on a social network, like Facebook, and others, and find 40 to 80 new unread messages there...!
Once I tried to make a list of all the places we must check, every day, for incoming messages.... The list got so long it was scary!
How do you manage the overwhelming volume of messages of all kinds coming at you every day....?
It seems like I could spend all of my time doing nothing but replying to messages... thousands of messages...
The thing is.... The vast majority of them are not important.
Two basic principles I believe in, also play in to this....
(1) I believe in being accessible.
I hope that no matter how large my circle of contacts grows, I will always be accessible. At least that is my goal. I strive to be available to people who want to contact me.
(2) I do not believe in wasting time.
I believe that idly chatting about nothing, just because one of us is bored, is a waste of time. I believe that life is far too short, and we have way too much to do to make this world a better place, to waste a minute of the time we have here.
So I've come up with this little system of managing incoming messages... What do you think of it?
The Plan
1. Turn Instant Message Notification On
The old advice used to be, "Don't interrupt yourself with email notifications. Just check your email once a day."
The new advice: Instant message notification is a must. In business, as well as personal life, these days... People expect instant access to you.
This does not mean that you must be available for a chat.... but it does mean that when someone sends you a message.... They pretty much expect that you will receive it instantly. If not - especially in business - your loss.
Modern cell phones usually have a setting to ring or beep or vibrate every time you receive a new voicemail, or SMS text message, or email. Use them.
Desktop systems also have little chimes every time you receive a new email. For example, google "gmail notifier". And for twitter, google "tweetdeck".
You'll hear a soft tone each time you receive an email, or a twitter direct message, or @reply.
2. Triage Every Message Every Time
I believe that receiving a message instantly is not a waste of time... especially if it's important. Getting sucked into a chatty conversation, however, is a total waste of time.
This is why Message Triage is critical.
Here's how...
Ask yourself...
< 1 >>>>> Is this message SPAMMY or not?
If the message is spammy (not important to you, self-promotional, automated, or trivia).... Then Filter it. Use the tools available to Filter such messages so that you'll never see them again. For example, in gmail, from the Reply menu click "Filter messages like this" and set up a filter to automatically Archive every such message from now on. You'll never be bothered with this sort of message again... (no matter whether the sender takes you off his list or not!)
Also, in twitter, you can click "block" on that person's profile page to stop receiving messages from that person.
If not, continue...
< 2 >>>>> Is this message CHATTY or not?
The message may be from your most beloved friend or family member... but it has no substance... It's just, what I call, chatty...
Messages like.... "Hi".
or.... "What are you doing?"
or.... "How are you today?"
Messages like this are obviously not direct, important communications. They are chatty. Getting sucked into a text chat session is probably the single biggest waste of time of the modern era. It's a bigger waste of time than channel surfing with the tv remote! No matter how bored you are.... Don't do it!
Avoid text chat at all cost!
If the message is chatty, reply immediately anyway.... (We do want to be accessible...) But only once.
If you receive two chatty messages from the same person in the same day, reply only once... per 24 hours. Leave all subsequent chatty messages from this person in your inbox to reply to tomorrow.
Don't reply to any more messages from this person again today, unless they suddenly send you a message that is substantive or meaningful....
like... "Are you home now? Can I stop by?"
or.... "Are we still on for Sunday brunch?"
< 3 >>>>> Is this message SERIOUS?
If the message is serious, sibstantive, meaninful.... is actually saying something... or asking something... then do, of course, reply immediately.
Text messages (including SMS text messages, IM instant messaging, online chat, Twitter, email, etc.) are good and efficient tools for communicating very short messages.... which contain mostly factual data, information, or yes or no questions.
Any communication beyond that requires a more conversational medium.
Therefore, reply to such serious, substantive text messages immediately... HOWEVER, only twice.
Even if you are discussing something very important or substantive, if the text chat becomes more that two messages back and forth...
It's time to switch to a more efficient medium - the telephone or video call - (i.e. using http://oovoo.com or http://skype.com )
In this case, use the text messaging to Schedule a Telephone or Video Call...
Say, "When is a convenient time I can call you on the phone? or on oovoo?"
While you are setting up the time for the call.... Also set up the time LIMIT for the call. Say, "I'll have 10 minutes at 2:30 today." Or.... "I think we only need 5 minutes on the phone, how about if I call you at 4pm?"
Make it a definite appointment, put it on your calendar, and stick to it.
Set a timer and stick to the time limit you set as well.
3. Be Concise
Use short messages. If what you have to say takes more than 140 character (2 sentences), then use text messaging to schedule a telephone or video call instead.
The only thing worse than wasting time typing paragraphs of long messages.... is reading those from someone else.
Long typewritten letters are not interactive... not efficient..... a big waste of time.
Make it a telephone or video call..... with a preset time limit.
Another Excellent Option:
If you have a lot to say - more than two sentences of text - but it's one directional.... In other words, you don't need it to be an interactive conversation... Use Audacity (a free audio recording program) and a microphone, to record your message as an audio. Select "Export as MP3 File" and send the MP3 file as an email attachment. This way you can record a long, detailed, elaborate, informative message... and send it to the person at any time of the day or night... like an email... without distubring or interrupting them.
Be efficient, effective, and accessible.
Thoughts? (please reply below)
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