John Cox

Don't Let Your Phone Work You

For an introduction to this article, please read the basis of my 7 Habits for Highly Productive People. I will probably have to change the title of this once I hear from Covey's lawyers, but in the meantime it works for me.

Becoming productive is just as much about having a strategy as it is about actually doing the work itself. Our work never ends. The in-box never gets smaller and time is not an infinite (well, it is, just not for us) property that we have to play with. In order to be productive, we must have our strategy laid out, measure our strategy, and improve where possible. This is one of those improvements that I made to my strategy and thus gets its own section. What I found by becoming more reliant on voice mail by turning off my cell phone was that I was just checking my voice mail every half hour looking for new work. It was becoming less productive than taking calls every fifteen minutes.

Turning off the cell phone, or our work phone will only go so far. We have to return the calls that are actionable. In business, the perception of doing is just as valuable as the doing itself. We have to give the perception that we are quick to return calls without spending out lives on the phone, and thus missing our work constants. Decreasing the time that I work at home was the main point of changing my habits, but I also have found that I have a marked improvement in the relationship with my customers.

When would you like to get a call?

I had to ask myself a question before I started setting aside fixed times to return calls. What time would be most productive for myself, my peers, my boss, and most importantly, my customers. I am an early riser. I tend to get quite a bit of work accomplished prior to seven AM when I am normally leaving the hotel. 7 AM would be the most convenient time for me to return calls. However, convenient and product don't always go hand in hand.

Most folks in my industry get to the office between 7:30 and 8:30. However, think about what you do when you first get to work. You might have a staff meeting in the first ten minutes. Then you probably wander over to the coffee pot for a shot of life blood. You probably also scatter the paper on your desk around in attempt to clear your mind and look busy. What you are really doing is getting in the mind frame of work. If you were to get a call in the first half hour of work, would your mind be ready for the results?

Take that a bit further now. After the first half an hour is probably your most productive time of the day. I am a morning person, so perhaps I am making a leap of faith that most folks are most productive in the first two hours of their day. I tend to have a fresh mind on the problems that I faced yesterday. I have more energy in the morning. I generally feel better in the morning and have more drive in the morning. The last thing I want to do is waste that energy by sitting on the phone with you.

In the afternoon, most folks get back from their lunch at around 1PM. They are generally ready for a nap at this point. We probably could not count the number of yawns in the early afternoon due to waiting for the renewed energy to kick in. However, once the energy kicks in, we normally have another brief highly productive time on our hands.

Set the schedule

For these reasons I set a schedule to return my phone calls at 10 AM and 2PM like clockwork. If you have called me in the morning or late afternoon, you get your return call in the mid-morning hours. If you called me later in the morning, you get your call in the early afternoon. I also save low priority calls for the early afternoon as well. I show a little courtesy to folks by allowing them to have their most productive period of the day doing their job. I also try to catch them before they hit the lull before lunch and before quitting hours.

Courtesy is a by product though. I do this for M Y productivity. I do this so that I can spend my most productive hours doing M Y work. Having a strategy for being productive means that you are being productive, not trying to shape others day. However, by working your strategy, you will see that you are making others productive as a by product. In addition, when you get more work done, then your department gets more work done. Your organization is that much more successful.

Make a checklist prior to the call

Before you return or make phones calls, it is just as important to have a strategy in what you want to accomplish. Nothing irritates me more than having 5 minutes of small talk without ever getting to the point. I understand that it is relationship building, and I understand the importance of humanizing yourself. However, when you don't have a strategy of what you want or need, then it is less likely that you will communicate the essence of the why you called in the first place.

I spend around 15 minutes prior to making my 10 AM and 2 PM phone calls writing out the key points that I want to communicate. Rather that key point is a question, or a follow-up answer, it really doesn't matter. I want to make sure that I get or give exactly what I wanted, otherwise I have wasted both your and my time on a call. If you have a bulleted list of exactly what you need and exactly what you want to communicate, then it becomes that much easier to take notes from a call.

Call me anal

I take notes during each phone call that I make. Here is what the other party agreed to. Here is what I agreed to follow-up on. Here is the expected outcome, and here is the next time that we need to touch base. I also write a note on the expected communication means, as I always ask on preference between a call or email. E-Mail can be just, if not more, evil than the phone, but it is a good method of disseminating information. As long as you stay away from the swirl, it can be more effective than making a follow up phone call.

I started doing this while I was in sales. What I learned was, nothing builds a relationship faster in sales than actually following through on an item that you stated you would check on. In my job in customer service, the same holds true now. I take my note taking just a bit further now, as I tend to take the five minutes of typing up my notes from each of my phone calls (I probably make ten calls per scheduled time, so twenty calls a day) and saving each of the notes in my Outlook drafts. That way, when I am ready to fire off the follow-up email, it is already written for the most part, and I have each of my bulleted points that I can review prior to sending.

Good note taking is essential in increasing your productivity. Although, you find more work in taking the notes, you tend to not forget the small stuff that always falls through the cracks. You are also better able to plan your day around your priorities and be forward thinking rather than reacting to the days events. You will never get to the top of your game while reacting. You never get away from reacting until you have a process in place to remember what you need to do, and when you need to do it by.

Sum it up

Think about the most productive times of the day for people. Schedule your phone calls towards the end of those cycles. You still have the burst of energy, but you are not zapping your entire productive time on the phone.

Set a schedule of when you are going to return phone calls, and then stick to it. You have to have a strategy to get more productive, and part of that strategy is managing your own resources (time).

Make a checklist of what you want to accomplish when you make a call. Have the who, what, when and where all thought out before hand. Stick to that checklist, even when the other party goes off into la la land.

Take notes on each call. Document what you and the other party agreed to. Stick to it. Use your notes to decide your priorities of work.