Always hated titles like this.
Yep. That’s what I’ve done recently. My Nexus is still always with me. It just doesn’t make unnecessary noise. It’s been on silent mode for a couple of months already, and I feel I’ve never been so productive in my whole life. So I decided to share with the world the results of my experiments with default communication practices. I know you won’t believe me. I know you feel it may be very liberating, but you probably think it’s not for you. It’s for those productivity junkies who don’t let themselves breathe freely for a second. Well, I still encourage you to read on and try it for a week or two. It won’t hurt.
We all know we’re hooked. But we underestimate how far down the rabbit hole we’ve gone. One of my employees once told me she refuses to turn off her private cell phone at the office because “what if someone important to me dies and I don’t find out right away?” It sounded ridiculous to me at the time, but it made me think. Maybe we all behave just like that? As if we’re always waiting for that kind of “death call”. Is that a proper way to live? Do we really need to ruin almost everything we do with phone interruptions while we wait for that mysterious life-or-death call?
My first experiment was to return calls only after 4 p.m. It failed, mostly because it requires you to remember to turn silent mode on and off every day, or to set up some sophisticated system of phone profiles. I failed at both.
Then I tried to call back all missed calls in batches while walking. It seemed quite useful, but it had its own drawbacks too.
First, the stupid one. I could be killed in a car accident, always looking at the phone screen and not at the road. I may sound overly pessimistic, but look at the people in the streets. They are sometimes virtually zombies. And I remember talking on the phone without a headset while riding my bicycle in heavy traffic.
Second, you may want to take notes during or right after a conversation. This is especially true if you leave all calls for walking time, not just the insignificant ones. I often found myself standing in the middle of a pathway, trying to write down all my ideas after a call.
Some people advise turning off your phone during working hours only. That’s a fair point. You’ll never miss a call from a friend inviting you to a party. Besides, the sales managers are usually off by then. But what if you are having dinner or sex, or both? Would you like to be interrupted? Decide for yourself. But keep in mind that a complete round-the-clock offline mode is psychologically more convincing for your social circle. Beware of their initial opposition to your “insane” experiments.
I’ve come to a simple notion. People usually don’t value their lives very highly, and thus their time. They may tell you the opposite, but trust no words. Trust what you see them do. Furthermore, they unconsciously extend this attitude to their peers. Hence the inevitable pressure on you. But do you really care what others think of you if you don’t have time to breathe, think and live?
Don’t be afraid to experiment with the way you handle calls. Find what works best for you.
I suggest a gradual transition to complete 24-hour silent mode, as it’s more practical and saves you the hassle of switching phone modes.
Try this trick. Set up your smartphone so that it sends an SMS to the caller every time you miss a call. Write something like “Hey! Sorry for the inconvenience. It’s easier to get in touch with me by email.” If you want to be really tough, don’t add your actual email. That way you control exactly who has access to you. This trick helped me educate my frequent contacts. I turned it off after a few weeks.
Remove your phone number from your business cards and email signature. If it’s a business issue, you’ll be better off, as your potential callers will be forced to write down exactly what they want from you. It’s good even for them! We all know that writing is thinking.
Create your SLA, a service level agreement. Decide when and whom you want to call back. This thinking alone might lead you to interesting findings. Whom do you consider worthy of your immediate attention? Maybe your kids, mom or pa are more important than another sales manager trying to foist some fancy new software on you?
Try teaching your people to send you an SMS if their stuff is a life-and-death issue.
I use my smartphone heavily during the day: I read, watch YouTube videos and check email. I just keep it silent around the clock. I can call back someone important to me (hi, dad!) when I take a break from work. Then I scan the missed calls and return some, mostly numbers I have in my phonebook. I don’t call back strangers. My number seems to be listed in lots of databases, because I didn’t pay much attention to whom I was giving it all these years. Sometimes I return a missed call only to find out it was another sales manager. The Android Lollipop update came out recently. It has beautiful new controls over notifications and exceptions to silent mode, which made my communication even better. Only two people are on my exceptions list — my parents. They rarely call me now, and when they do, I’m sure it’s worth picking up.
Some will say, “Oh, that’s not the case for me. My boss will never let me do this.”
Ask yourself (and possibly your boss) whether he is paying you to answer calls immediately or for something else. If it’s the former, which is unlikely unless you are a call center operator or a big boss’s assistant, don’t complain. You still can, and must, set some limits. Check out the movie Swimming with Sharks on this ;)
Hope this all helps somebody. These ideas are inspired by Dan Kennedy’s No B.S. Time Management for Entrepreneurs. If you liked this post, you should definitely read the book.
More in my next posts on what I’ve done to free myself up, and on how I fell into the trap of serving others instead of pursuing my dreams.