7 tips to manage our phone calls more effectively.

1. I don’t know about you, but when somebody calls me and they want to give me information, then they put me on hold while they try and go find it, it’s a bit discourteous in my mind.  I tend to call them time robbers.  Have all the information at your finger tips prior to making the call.
2. Establish relevancy quickly. Relevancy means paying attention to the matter at hand.
3. Put a time limit on the front of your call. So if you were to call me I would say, “John, I am glad you called, I have about 3 minutes.  Could we wrap it up in that amount of time, or maybe I could call you back?
4. It’s a good idea to have clock or a watch by the telephone so that you are aware of how much time is actually ticking away during each call.
5. Screen your calls whenever possible, of course in a polite way.
6. Keep a talk file. If I communicate with you on an ongoing basis I keep a little paper file, or memo file electronically about things I want to talk to you about. Rather than call you every time something comes to mind, I just put it in the file and then when we finally do talk I might have six or eight items that I want to review with you and I have only made one call rather than six calls.
7. Very often we are called but nobody tells us the best time to call them back.  They give us the telephone number so fast that we have to keep playing the message over and over to get it down. I’m sure that’s happened to you many times. So when you wrap up the call give “precise” detailed information and restate your phone number twice.

Take the next few minutes and think about your biggest telephone challenges and write a statement in your Day-Timer how you will change that habit starting today.  We form habits by daily repetition, so practice this daily.

More time saving tips

Inter-Personal Conflict Is A Productivity Time Bomb!

Ever notice how a two- or three-minute conflict with another person can drain more energy from your system than a full day’s work? If you carry that emotional upset with you and then take it home day after day, you make it grow. Down goes your own productivity, and down goes the productivity of those to whom you complain.

Persistent, unresolved conflict is a time-waster of the worst kind. Have the courage to fix it fast. If necessary, seek help from another person. You will conserve both time and energy.

Stop letting people steal your time!

The most common activities that break our focus are interruptions and distractions by others. If we have a wimpy “no muscle” then we will be dominated by them. Dealing with them is easy. All you really need to know are the four response options and the three focus techniques for saying no.

The four response options to interruptions are easy to use. How do you decide which one to choose? Simply color your choices as we described in the first chapter. The four response options are:

1. Respond and do it now when it’s red, (required immediate action).

2. Reschedule for a later time when it’s green or yellow and can be postponed, (needs to be done today or tomorrow).

3. Refer it to someone else if it’s not in your domain.
4. Refuse to do it when it’s gray. This is when you use your “no muscle.”

The four techniques for refusing or saying no are:

1. The Immediate Response Method
This is when you refuse a request on the spot, immediately after it is made. There are four elements you can include in your refusal statement to soften the response. The elements express:

• A desire to be helpful
• A singular reason you can’t
• An expression of regret
• And a thank you for asking

Here’s an example of the refusal statement using those elements. “I’d love to help but right now I just have too much on my plate, I’m really sorry but thank you for asking.” This is a classy approach most people will feel good about.

Caution: When giving a singular reason for saying no such as your plate is full, don’t give details. The more specific reasons you give, the less persuasive you’ll sound. You are not obligated to give reasons.

2. The Delay Tactic
This is when you are unsure and you want to think through the request. People often say yes when they should say no because they are under the pressure of the moment. For example, use a simple statement such as, “I’d like to but I’m not sure I can. Give me some time to think about it and I’ll get back to you.” If, after thinking about it, you decide you can’t, then use a refusal statement with the elements described above.

3. The Helping Hand Approach
This technique is driven by a sincere desire to be helpful even though you must say no. For example, recommend to the person somebody else who might assist them, or you could suggest alternative solutions. You might also agree to commit some limited time to it. It’s good time management to always lend a helping hand when we can.

4. Just say NO
This takes courage. But when a person approaches you with “gray matter” just say NO. Remember, gray stands for activities that are a complete waste of time, such as office gossip. In our seminars we go through an exercise where participants stand up and yell in their loudest voice, “NO…NO, NO, NO. What part of no don’t you understand! Can’t you see that I am working here!”
Practice these techniques and your “no muscle” will get stronger and stronger.

How Successful Organizations Deal with Interruptions

On a typical day, you can expect to get caught in the crossfire of interruptions, the unexpected will bubble up, and demands will fall out of the sky at inconvenient times.  Flexicuting will be required.

Yes, we invented the word flexicuting because we can’t think of a better way to describe this skill.  Events are so fluid in today’s work environment that we have to change, adapt, and shift our focus all day long.

Flexicuting involves the ability to:

• Be as willing to leave your activity list when priorities shift.
• Be able to respond to opportunities the middle of the day.
• Reserving some time every day to deal with the expected/unexpected.
• Be wired 24/7 without letting it be a source of distractions and frustration.

Would you like to become better at flexicuting?  Here’s how! Recognize it’s a survival skill by changing your mindset and practice the forgoing flexicuting skills daily. It can be quite fun.

Flexicuting involves the skill of both multi-tasking activities and alternate-tasking activities. It also requires the wisdom to know when to use and when to avoid either of these approaches.

We’ll talk about multi-tasking first. In our society, the term multi-tasking is overused. Even worse, the skill has been elevated to the pinnacle of desirable abilities and we often find ourselves abused—and sometimes abusing—in the execution of multi-tasking because there are some guidelines to multi-tasking that most people aren’t aware of.

Beware of multi-tasking while engaging with another person; for example, opening and reading your mail while carrying on a business conversation with somebody in your office. Not only is this disrespectful and a put-down of the other person, it’s very easy to miss a point or to misinterpret the communication.

Alternate-tasking is the natural result of being wired 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and 365 days a year (24/7/365). Living under these conditions, it makes sense to alternate our work and personal life activities in a way that we can fully experience both. While multi-tasking can contaminate time, alternate-tasking does not.

Alternate-tasking can help you get more done in less time than multi-tasking because, when you are fully engaged, you are more efficient and productive.

Flexicuting also involves the “oscillation” of our daily activities. This too is part of the flexicuting skill. In other words, we alternate activities that require intense concentration of effort with activities that are easier and much less stressful. The easier activities give you a chance to recover your energy and then re-engage again.

Here’s how I oscillate. I spend a lot of time working from my office at home. Typically, I’ll schedule the activity of telephone coaching with a client, followed by thirty minutes of paper pushing. Then, I might do another period of coaching, followed by taking some time to get out of my office and run an errand. This is what we call making waves during the day. It’s a way to manage our energy as well as our time. It can be a real downer to run out of energy before we run out of action list.

One of the foremost experts in the country on this subject is Dr. James Loehr, who co-wrote, among other books, The Power of Full Engagement. His advice is to manage our day as a series of sprints, each followed by adequate recovery time. If you are executing activities all day long as a marathon, it’s likely you won’t be as effective and will possibly burn yourself out by the end of the day.

Flexicuting and making waves during the day is not only ridiculously easy—it can be fun!

More on the subject of overwhelm.

More on the subject of stress.

Excerpted from the book Attack Your Day! Before It Attacks You, co-authored by Mark Woods, a time management expert. Mark Woods conducts training workshops, keynote speeches, breakout sessions, webinars, and offers private mentoring on the subject of time and productivity. Contact 623-688-2221 for more information.

Having a hard time ending an overlong phone call?

Interrupt yourself! Try this. First, gain control of the conversation. Then in the middle of a sentence, abruptly stop talking, glance at your watch, and mention the time in an urgent manner. For example: “Oh! It’s three-fifty! I need to get going.” That’s all it takes.

Notice the technique. It’s honest and not threatening because it’s never rude to interrupt yourself. Plus, it puts you in control. It breaks the conversation politely so you can be on your way.

No Door On Your Office

An aura is defined as, “a distinctive atmosphere surrounding a given source.” Many are not aware they create their own time management aura that is easily picked up by others. Fortunately, we can create any aura we desire.

Create an aura that telegraphs the feeling that you value your own time and the time of others. When you do, you will increase respect from others and reduce interruptions from others. When you don’t have a door on your office, an aura can perform a similar function.

An aura is built by indirectly training others in your time management style by how you respond to them. For example, immediately rescheduling drop-in visitors on the spot rather than accommodating them. This telegraphs a powerful message that your space is personal and carefully guarded.

Give this one a try today.  Are you experiencing stress? Here is a useful stress tip.

The Three Stages Of Interruptions

It has been traditional in the time management business to say it takes three times as long to recover from an interruption as it takes to experience it. This is due in large part to the three stages of responding.

First, there is wind down time, which drops the effectiveness level on which you were working. Then there is resolution time, which is the time devoted to dealing with the interruption. Next, there is wind up time, the time necessary to get you back up to the level on which you were working.

The clock keeps ticking throughout these three stages, and more time is consumed than most people realize.

80% of Time Management Problems Are Self-Imposed!

Many feel that eighty percent of their time management problems come from others when, in reality, eighty percent are self-imposed.

There are at least twenty self-imposed habits that cannibalize time.  Here are four examples: unwilling to say no, attempting too much, procrastination, and insufficient planning.  Do you own any of these?

The good news is we can control self-imposed time wasters with practice and discipline.  Remember what we were told as children: “When we point our finger at somebody else, there are four pointing back at us.”

Control the four time wasters mentioned above and other self imposed problems, and you’ll be an incredible time manager.  Then other people won’t be your problem!

Noise Polluters Are The New Age Time Robbers

Noise polluters shout into their cell phones in restaurants, on commercial transportation and in open office environments.  Sometimes they even do this while sitting right next to somebody.  They set the ringers on their phones loud enough to serve as fire alarms, and their bizarre ring styles become further distractions.  They don’t seem to care at all for those around them.

Distractions interrupt others, intrude into their time space, and make it difficult to concentrate.  Promote a healthy time environment.  Eliminate cell phone noise pollution.  It is common courtesy.