Use Business Communication Tools Like a Pro
Learn how to use business communication tools without letting them take over and hindering your productivity with best practices and actionable tips.
Challenges
Contemporary business communication tools, such as email and chat clients, have revolutionized the workplace. They have provided instant access to our coworkers, managers, customers, business partners, and other resources. Yet, this strength comes at a cost: If these messages, notifications, and alerts are not appropriately controlled, they can be stressful and overwhelming.
We are under pressure to respond to fresh notifications as soon as possible, regardless of their value. This issue is exacerbated by the default settings of most communication systems. For example, Slack will send immediate notifications for any incoming message. In fact, a growing body of studies indicates that this type of “notification overload” can produce significant increases in stress and declines in overall job satisfaction. The number of notifications that trigger overload varies from person to person but might be as little as four per hour. Regardless of the level, once achieved, work performance and overall job satisfaction suffer.
This issue has gotten worse as the concept of remote work has gained traction. Because coworkers do not share office space, much contact takes place via applications. This can lead to the anxiety that not responding soon will lead a coworker to believe that their message was simply judged unimportant — or, worse, disregarded.
Solution
The solution is straightforward: take control of your communications. Let email and Slack work for you rather than dictating what you should be doing at any given time. This does not imply that you will start ignoring messages. Instead, you will get to the messages when you have the time and mental bandwidth. By doing this, you will be ready to focus on the notifications (and any tasks they relate to) so that you may address them more efficiently and promptly.
Pull vs Push — Manage Notifications
The first step in regaining control of your communication channels is to turn off or reduce the volume of notifications. This is referred described as a “Pull” strategy, as opposed to a “Push” strategy. Notifications under a “Push” strategy interrupt you the moment they arrive. This is a diversion and, as previously stated, can be extremely stressful. A “Pull” concept implies that you reach out for fresh messages when you are ready to accept them. This has been proved to be the more productive manner of handling frequent communications.
Let’s look at a brief example to demonstrate.
Even if you turn off notifications, you will still receive messages. You will still check for new messages; however, with a pull model, you will do so on a schedule that works for you. This could involve checking Slack, your email, and so on once an hour to see what is new and needs attention. When you do this once an hour, you interrupt your attention work much less frequently- perhaps 16 times per day — twice an hour. When you have notifications enabled, how often do you get more than two notifications each hour? You will most likely receive 46–60 at a minimum, and far more if there is additional project work going on. The total number of notifications you receive will also assist you in determining which model to employ to minimize interruption times — here’s a calculation that shows the variations in use cases for two users who could very well work for the same company:
Everyone will have a distinct “right” number of times to check for new messages. A pull strategy is unrealistic in some situations (for example, a call centre where every new ticket must be resolved as soon as possible). But, in most circumstances, there is a happy medium where you are kept up to date on new messages without being constantly disturbed. Receiving messages and notifications in batches like this on a consistent timetable has been demonstrated to alleviate the stress caused by notification overload. Almost every notification can wait; those that are an emergency will be followed by a more urgent communication mode, such as a phone call.
Use Focus Time in Calendar
Your calendar is another useful resource when it comes to concentrate time. Some people, for example, are most productive in the early hours of the day. So, if you’re one of those people, you may block off your calendar from, say, 9 a.m. to 11 a.m., so that no one tries to take your time when you’re working really hard (and not checking email or notifications). This is essentially a meeting with oneself. Plus, because it’s on your public schedule, people will understand not to approach you unless there’s an emergency — just like any other meeting.
A Simplified Get-Things-Done Model
The third technique to regain control of your communications is Shan Huang’s simplified Getting Things Done framework, and the aim is to queue your messages secretly, access them when you can, and archive them when you’re done. It also helps to employ filters to keep spam and junk mail out of your inbox in the first place. This concept is most commonly associated with email and Slack, but it may be applied to any communication tool with which you engage.
At a high level, it looks like this:
Let’s see how the framework works in two of the most prominent communication tools, Gmail and Slack.
In Gmail
When you interact with a message, you will either process and archive it, or you will mark it as unread (aka unprocessed) so you know you need to return to it later. The ultimate goal is to avoid having items tagged as ‘read’ in your inbox — everything read is processed, and everything processed is preserved.
It is crucial to remember that this does not imply that your inbox must always be fully empty. (You should also quickly delete/unsubscribe from any spam lists to which you have subscribed so that junk mail does not overload your inbox.) Handling communications in this manner implies that you should have significantly fewer emails in your inbox — ideally, 10 or less. Most significantly, this technique implies that if you have an unread email in your inbox, it requires attention. This can also turn your inbox into an informal to — do list; if you’re not sure what to do next, look at the oldest unread email.
In Slack
The Getting Things Done framework can be applied to any of the various workplace communication tools. Slack, for example, includes a tool called “Remind me about this” that can be used to ensure you don’t miss an essential communication. You can use this functionality to request that Slack resurface a message later in the day or even on another day. This is useful if you have a message come in late on a Friday that you want to tackle first thing in the morning the following Monday, for example. You can also use “Mark unread” which is similar to the gmail operations above.
Conclusion
Taking charge of your business communications tools is a big step towards taking charge of your day. Making conscious choices about your concentrate time and the messages you absorb will allow you to work more efficiently and with fewer distractions. This will also help you stay on top of things and avoid missing messages — features like Zero Inbox guarantee that you’ll have a clear list of what’s important.
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