We all have tried it. Knock off a few emails while on a phone call…
As Dr. Phil would say, “How’d that work for ya?”
Bottom line –It doesn’t work. Pick one or the other, just NOT BOTH!
With the exponential rise of email usage, many of us feel the need to do everything at once to keep it all under control. Unfortunately, multitasking is a myth, and as much as we’d like to, we can’t do two things well at once. Especially talking on the phone and managing email.
We’ve all been on a phone call when the other party was clacking away at his or her computer. Or, the reverse –we try to whittle away those email messages while talking on the phone, and then realize we didn’t hear what was said, and embarrassingly have to ask the caller to repeat his point.
Face it – people can’t do two things at once. We try, but it’’s physically impossible, just like we can’t be in two places at the same time. What happens inevitably is that we either do one of the two things very well, and the other poorly, or do only about a 50% job on both. Neither of these options bode well.
What some people call multitasking is actually shifting from one task to the other and back again. There are situations when that can work effectively, but combining telephone dialogue and the handling of email is not one of them. Because conversation between two people is fluid, it is a continual stream of engagement. To take your focus off the conversation and sneak a few email deletes takes your concentration from the dialogue, giving it less than 100% effort.
By not devoting your complete attention to that conversation, you risk lengthening the time of the call through unnecessary repeats or missed points of information. The person on the other end of the line can, in most cases, tell that you’re not fully engaged, and that can be seen negatively or even viewed as offensive behavior. Finally, the quality of your email handling is at risk because you’re not fully focused.
The strategy? The minute the phone rings, minimize or close down your inbox. Do the same when you decide to make a call. These simple steps can enable you to be fully focused on the subject at hand, and not distracted by that ever-growing inbox. (You can maximize it after the call is finished.)
The ability to focus in this fast paced world is an excellent career building strategy, and this applies to things as simple as telephone conversations.
So, when you’re on the phone, turn away from the computer. Shut your email down. Don’t even think of handling an email in the middle of a dialogue.
Your discussion will be more effective because you’re fully engaged. It most likely will be shorter because you heard everything that was said – the first time. And, perhaps most important, you won’t offend the caller.
Phone ringing? Shut that inbox down.
