Musings
Let It Ring
Email, Facebook, Twitter, and a phone in your pocket, while great means of communication, can also be tremendous time wasters. How often have you gone online to check your mai l and found yourself an hour later not having completed your project.
What did we do before we had these tools? We didn't worry that we might miss something; our phones took messages (they still do) and the mailman came every day. In fact, priorities are often altered with it influx of time. We didn't miss anything; we just couldn't answer immediately.
Today's technology has made us all anxious and worried that we might miss something. It has also tended to make us lazy in our communications, and out of touch with the people in our lives. Face to face interactions are always the best; our communication tools are getting rusty.
Step back and take a breath. If an email message is an emergency the sender can phone you with an alert. Text messages that don't involve your next appointment can be answered later. The world is not going to come to an end if you don't jump at every signal.
Create a habit of checking emails, texts and phone messages only once or twice a day. Set up "auto replies" to let people know you will get back to them later. Carve out 5 to 10 minutes between appointments to catch up on anything urgent; the rest can wait until you have some free time. Let your friends and customers that you only answer your messages at specific times if their message is urgent they should call you.
Your time is too valuable to let something, or someone else, control it. Take charge of your time so you can be more productive and have plenty of time left over for your family and friends.
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