Second Cup: Just make that call

You don't need to set appointments to chat

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:03):
Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of I Heart Radio.
Good Morning, This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast.
Today's tip is to just make that phone call, Particularly
if you are working at home these days, you can
save yourself all sorts of time and frustration and schedule

(00:25):
clutter by using the actual telephone feature on your phone.
As a bonus, as we're all engaged in social distancing,
hearing a human voice can be a real mood boost too.
Once upon a time, the only convenient way to communicate
with someone who wasn't right in front of you was
to call that person on the phone. Now, there were

(00:47):
downsides to this. A ringing phone interrupts whatever the other
person is doing right at the time you've chosen whether
this is convenient for the other person or not. So
asynchronous forms of communications seems like great solutions to this problem.
As email and texts became available, phone calls fell out
of favor. Indeed, many people think it might be rude

(01:10):
or presumptuous to call someone without explicit permission, like you've
sent a calendar invite to talk at two pm. This
makes sense, but the net result is that people waste
all sorts of time composing emails that go back and
forth ten times to make a point that could have
been handled in a two minute phone call, and maybe

(01:31):
the point doesn't get made because it is shockingly easy
to misinterpret written communication. Even worse, when all phone calls
require appointments, people tend to set them on the hour
or half hour, even when they'll take three minutes. If
you know you've got to call at three pm, you
stop focusing on deep work a little before that and

(01:52):
cycle through headline checks and such after. If you have
little appointments peppering your schedule all day, you might never
get really into focused work. The schedule clutter makes you
far less effective. Lots of things are changing now with
the COVID nineteen pandemic, as many people work from home
for the first time. Here's something that definitely should change.

(02:15):
People need to start just picking up the phone when
they need to ask a question or get clarification on something.
While in the past you might have assumed you'd bump
into your colleagues in the hall, now you won't. You'll
need to actually reach out to anyone you want to
talk to, and since you need to call, it's much
more efficient if people just pick up the phone and

(02:36):
do so. No twiddling your thumbs until the official three
pm start. No winding up with small bits of hard
to use time between appointments on the hour and half hour. Now, yes,
it might feel risky to call, but if it's convenient,
the other person will pick up, and if not, you
will try again. But either approach is better than a
twelve email chain that then accidentally gets four awarded to

(03:00):
the wrong person, or setting appointments all day long that
leads to time stress. And here's another upside to the phone.
It's really nice to hear people's voices. My social distancing
involves five children underfoot, but if your house is quieter,
you might enjoy getting a real chat. If you can't
go outside to talk to people, well that's the next

(03:21):
best thing, and it can put a real smile on
your face. So next time you find yourself sending a
long email to ask if you can have a quick
chat at two pm, just pick up the phone and
call about the matter instead. If you're managing people, let
them know that yes, you really do want them to
call you call them to tell them that you'll get

(03:42):
your work done and be on your way in the meantime,
this is Laura. Thanks for listening and here's to making
the most of our time. Hey, everybody, I'd love to
hear from you. You can send me your tips, your questions,

(04:02):
or anything else. Just connect with me on Twitter, Facebook
and Instagram at Before Breakfast pod. That's B the number four,
then Breakfast p o D. You can also shoot me
an email at Before Breakfast podcast at i heeart media
dot com that Before Breakfast is spelled out with all
the letters. Thanks so much, I look forward to staying

(04:24):
in touch. Before Breakfast is a production of I Heart Radio.
For more podcasts from my heart Radio, visit the i
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