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August 13, 2000
Have you ever had one of those days when every time you hang up the phone it rings again? You spend practically all day on the phone handling calls using up valuable work time; and probably most calls didn't require your immediate attention and could be handled at a later time. Your productivity starts dropping and you find yourself working late just to catch up.
What can you do to stop the interruptions and increase your productivity? How about taking a telephone time out? Set aside a portion of time everyday when you take a time out from answering the phone and all your calls are held. This is a very difficult thing to do considering the way we typically respond when the telephone rings. It's like Pavlov's dogs; we have to pick it up. The problem with this is that we get involved in conversations dealing with things that would not normally require our immediate attention.
Taking a telephone time out can require some creative scheduling for most people. You must figure what part of the day where you can become unavailable without hurting your company or business or ignoring the really important people. If your business is the type where most of your important (important being the key word here) phone activity is in the morning, you will want to take a time out later in the day or vice versa. While this sounds so obvious, it can take some practice to get used to this routine.
Have your phone calls redirected into voicemail or have someone take messages for you. Always be sure to promptly return calls. You wouldn't want to be known as being flaky. Depending on the volume of calls you need to return, it may be necessary to schedule a couple of times a day where you take the time to only return calls. A very successful friend of mine tells me how she has her secretary hold calls and direct them into her voicemail when she's under pressure to deliver time sensitive work. Then she returns everyone's calls at a set time of the day. Using this method, she says that she can get her work done and still handle the call volume.
It will always be a delicate balance between juggling phone calls and getting your work done. After a little practice of using telephone time outs, you will soon be a pro at managing your time and become more productive at work.
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