Real-Time Communication: Productivity Igniter or Productivity Killer?
In today’s world, we can effortlessly be in real-time communication, all the time, with…everybody. Or at least everybody to whom we have access via text, Facebook, Twitter, email, Slack…Oh, yeah, that’s just about everybody. But, is this a good thing or a bad thing? This post explores this question.
For starters, I want to distinguish between constant communication and real-time communication. Granted, these terms are related, and sometimes interchangeable. However, there is a subtle distinction, and I think it’s important here. By constant communication I am referring to our choice to be in communication all the time, 24x7x365. That is essentially a lifestyle. But by real-time communication, I am referring to the ability to immediately communicate with people with whom you are not physically with at that particular time. That is essentially an ability.
Let’s start with some pro’s and con’s of real-time communication.
How Real-Time Communication Ignites
- Collaborative, global work environment – I personally benefit from this everyday. I mainly work from my residence in Pennsylvania, my current day job office is in the Boston area, and I have a team all over the world. Today’s technologies and the ability to have real-time communication absolutely allows us to work almost as if we are sitting across the table from each other. Same is true with my network marketing business. I can be in real-time communication with potential partners and customers just as if we are in the same room. Twenty years ago, this doesn’t happen.
- Emergencies – When there are TRUE emergencies (I emphasize this because most of what we consider emergencies are not actually emergencies), the ability to have real-time communication can sometimes mean the literal difference between life and death.
- Changing Plans – OK, this is more convenience than anything else, but isn’t it awesome? “Hey, I’m at the restaurant a little early and the line is out the door, let’s meet over at such-and-such instead. See you there”. I love that. Same applies when moving kids around and tracking their whereabouts. How convenient is it when they are old enough to have a phone and you and they can change plans in real-time on the spot? I think back to when I was in high school, with pay phones, and “set-in-stone” meeting times and places, etc…UGH.
How Real-Time Communication Kills
- Allows others to control our time – Because we CAN be in real-time communication, many times we think we NEED to be in real-time communication. We act like Pavlov’s dogs when we get that Ding! or Buzz from the gadget in our pocket or hand. This is a YOU problem, not a THEY problem.
- Distraction (friends, sports, news, etc) – This is how we sabotage ourselves. We allow our ability to be in real-time communication to always know exactly what’s going on right at the moment with our favorite sports team, or in the news, or even where our social media “friend” is having lunch. It’s really procrastination, and it’s a killer.
- Contributes to not making plans – Now I just spent a paragraph discussing how awesome having the ability to change plans is…BUT, I’m more focused here on the fact in order to make progress in anything (especially your side and home business), you MUST PLAN out your work, and then commit to those plans. I have honestly worked with people who have no plan for their work day. He/She just shows up and let’s the email inbox or the Slack feed rule their day. If you are a Helpdesk worker, this is likely a great approach to your day, but if you do almost anything else, you will get little to nothing IMPORTANT done. You must maximize your time in Quadrant 2 of the Eisenhower Principle Matrix.
An Example
Here is an example that is really more of an etiquette problem, but I think it completely illustrates the problem that many of us have with the distraction of real-time communication when we are working.
How many times have you been having a conversation with someone standing or sitting in front of you, and he or she pulls out their phone and starts answering text messages while you are speaking? How many times have you done that yourself? Most of us do it ALL OF THE TIME. This is actually very socially rude, but it happens so often, in some ways its subtle, and we are so conditioned to it that I think most people don’t even really pay much attention to it anymore.
However, think about it this way…What if you and I were speaking to each other at your desk, and out of the blue, another person (the buttinski) walks over, and literally just starts telling one of us about the amazing lunch that they just had. Any person with any level of understanding of social etiquette would be horrified, and would likely even implore the buttinski to kindly wait their turn. Regardless of the social implication here, what has the buttinski done to the conversation and your train of thought? They’ve completely derailed it!
This is exactly what happens when we allow email/text/social media messages to impede on our time of focus. Shift the scenario to instead of you and I having a conversation in person, to you solitarily working, but working on something of great importance and effectiveness to your business: reaching out to people, marketing, content, etc. Now you get the DING! of the text message, or social media alert, or email alert…and now you’re off. You’ve mentally switched to answer or browse, and now you’ve lost valuable time.
Realize that the problem is NOT that the other person has sent you a message or tried to contact you. How would they have any idea what you were currently in the middle of? The problem is that YOU ALLOW the ding, or the buzz, to completely derail your focus to answer what just came in.
Oh dear! I literally just did it myself while in the middle of writing this section. I just answered a message that dinged in from a colleague. Why? Apparently, because even if you have the awareness and the conscious discipline, sometimes the lure of the ding is too great.
We confuse our ability to have real-time communication with our lifestyle of being in constant communication. The constant communication lifestyle is fine, but YOU must be in control over the real-time aspects of it.
Focus on What YOU Can Control
How do we handle this? It’s all about focusing on what you can control. You can’t control the fact that somebody is trying to get in contact with you, but you CAN control your reaction to it.
For this issue, there are 2 main strategies and tactics to employ:
- Awareness and discipline. This takes time and effort because most of us are conditioned the other way. Start with awareness. Once you are aware of your actions, you can start to make changes. I’ve already just admitted that sometimes this isn’t enough, but it definitely starts here.
- Turn Notifications OFF! At least during the important, focus times. Whether its your phone, tablet, or computer, all of the modern day operating systems allow you to configure the notifications settings. Plus, you can simply put these devices in “Do Not Disturb” mode. There are always ways to setup exceptions for those incoming messages that are truly important (mainly by person).
Remember, technology is a good servant, but a BAD master. Don’t let the ability of having real-time communication actually make you less productive.
If you got some value out of this, please comment below and share it with others! Also, if you desire to go into more depth on this, and many other topics related to “Focusing on What YOU Can Control”, this course may be just what you need. In this course I go into depth on a great many of these topics.
