Email and Text communications

Work Five Hours per Day

November 14, 2019 By Tom Mungavan Leave a Comment

What if you only had to work five hours per day. What could you do with the other 19 hours each day? Maybe you can if you really want to.

Studies of the workday indicate that most people are only productive five hours each day. There is a German company that is experimenting with the five-hour work day and getting as much productivity as they did with an eight-hour day previously, according to a Wall Street Journal article.

Here are the rules:

Phones kept in backpacks (no calls or text messages).
No social media or Internet distractions.
Check company email twice per day.
Small talk is discouraged (except for 15 minutes before work).
Meetings are limited to 15 minutes each.
Work hours are 8:00 AM to 1:00 PM.
Employees may socialize after work by going out to lunch at 1:00 and going home.

People fill the available time

People who work reduced hours are often as productive or more productive than those who work full-time. There is a natural focus on not wasting time with a shorter work day.

I worked with a manufacturing plant running 10-hour shifts, except for days the company softball team had a game. Analysis of the results were that workers did as much work in 8 hours as in the normal 10 hour day. Before we attribute bad intent, it is important to realize there is some human nature involved that impacts all of us.

Personalization

What if you used some or all of the above rules to manage your day? How much more productive could you be? I have seen 15-minute meetings have great impact. I have personal experience of spending too much time on email messages.

When I had to carve out another 35 hours per week to get my MBA, I found the time while working more than full-time. I still have not figured out where all that time went after I completed the degree.

Results

At least one German company has found success getting as much done in a 25-hour workweek as in a 40-hour workweek.

Not everyone wants to work less. When asked about what people would do with an eighth day in the week, most said they would work. If that is the case, using the rules might allow for more productivity.

Saving social media to non-work hours would help many people if it allows them to spend less time at work.

It’s good to know there are options that are working for some people.

Graciously Decline

March 21, 2019 By Tom Mungavan Leave a Comment

You’re busy. That lunch meeting (or other meeting) that sounded good a month ago when you agreed to meet … well there just is not enough time. You need to reschedule, or cancel the lunch or other meeting.

It’s easy to just decline the meeting. Press the decline button … done. But what is the impact?

Baseline is that a rejection of a meeting without any comment feels disrespectful at best. It is often seen as rude. It is one of the “mundane moments” that breaks down trust.

When that mundane moment is handled well, it can build trust. A few words of apology and interest in rescheduling makes an enormous difference in how it feels to the other person. I have seen people make major judgements about a person that cancelled without comments. Were the judgements justified? Probably not.

One of the largest human fears is rejection. We are not normally conscious of the strong tie. It comes out in less obvious ways. A gracious decline can reduce or even eliminate the rejection emotion if the message affirms the desire to meet at a future time.

“But, it was my assistant who sent the decline, not me!” That’s even worse. Be sure your assistant is aware of the importance of being gracious.

“But they are INSERT HERE [subordinate/ vendor/networker/job seeker] so I should be able to decline. I was doing them a favor.” Maybe so. The more power you have over the other person, the bigger impact rejection is likely to have on them. You may never know how they get back at you for your rejection, if you are not gracious. Being gracious is the right thing to do with another human being. It’s also wise for your career.

Interesting Out of Office Message

August 13, 2018 By Tom Mungavan Leave a Comment

Like you, I have seen hundreds, if not thousands, of “Out-of-Office” (OOO) messages that are all pretty similar. Here is one I just received:

“I will be out of the office until DATE. For urgent items, please reach out to NAME at EMAIL. Otherwise, I will respond upon my return.”

I recently saw a more creative OOO message from a client that went something like this:

Dear Sender,

Thank you for your email. As a lonely computer, I am grateful for emails like yours. Emails are the only contact I have with the outside world and they remind me that I still exist. My owner locked me in this sunless drawer until DATE.

My owner abandoned me and took his family on vacation. I saw the beautiful pictures of the sunny beach he is enjoying while I wait in this dark drawer. He’s probably sipping his tropical drinks, watching his kids splash in the water while reading one of those paper books (that don’t require me).

I tried to convince him to take me along and answer emails on the beach. He just slammed my lid closed and put me in this locked drawer. He did ask me to let you know that if you need help before he returns, you can contact NAME at EMAIL for help. Alas, that is the best I can do for now. Thanks again for letting me know I matter.

Kind regards,
Lap Top Computer

There are a number of things I like about this message:

It is entertaining and breaks the boredom of going through emails.
I think of the person as more interesting and creative.
It reminds me that I used to read paper books.
I take a momentary vacation myself picturing sitting on the beach with a drink and a book.
It gives me a little more courage to not answer emails on vacation.
I was stimulated to create my own message.

I hope it encourages you to be a little more creative with your OOO messages … particularly when you are on vacation.

A Simpler Life

August 2, 2018 By Tom Mungavan Leave a Comment

Do you ever long for the simpler life? There was a time when things were slower paced and simpler. Then you look at your mobile phone filled with applications you downloaded and never use — all those text messages, emails and notes that are no longer relevant. How many pictures on your phone are really not worth keeping? Their only function is to make it hard to find what you do need. And another meal is interrupted by a text or phone call…

At home, the larger the storage area, the more we seem to store. Moving to a new or smaller home requires cleaning out the stuff we no longer need. The digital comparison is that many phones and computers have almost unlimited storage, which means we seldom need to “clean house” to remove unneeded things that are getting in our way.

What might digital “cleaning house” look like?

Email

Most emails are no longer needed or were never needed in the first place. The emails can be deleted or archived (just in case). Unsubscribe to email lists that you don’t read. If they keep coming anyway, add them to your junk filter.

Text Messages

By their nature, most text messages have limited value once they are read. If you receive a text message with a confirmation code (two-factor authentication) you can delete it immediately. Most other messages also have no value after they are read.

To delete an entire Messages conversation on iPhone (IOS 7+), open Messages and go to the conversation. Touch “Edit” in the upper left corner. Tap the circle to the left of the conversation you want to delete so it turns to a check mark. Press the “Delete” in the lower right corner. (If you change your mind – press “cancel” before the “Delete”.)

To delete specific text messages and not all in the Messages conversation, tap and hold on the message you want to delete. When the menu appears, select “More”. Circles will appear to the left of each individual text message. Select the ones you want to delete. Press the trash can in the lower left corner. Confirm by pressing the “Delete” message that appears.

How Many Apps Do You Use on Your iPhone?

It’s easy to download Apps that you only use once or maybe never. They make it hard to find the Apps you want and take up memory on your phone that you can use for other things.

iTunes used to make it easy to arrange Apps by category. Apple took that function away. They did add the ability to “Offload Unused Apps” that does not remove the data.

On the iPhone, go from SETTINGS >> General >> iPhone Storage to arrive at the screen pictured at the right. In this example, there is 64.5 GB in use and offloading 16.2 GB of unused Apps would free up 25% of the used memory without removing the associated data. You can reload the App later and use the associated data. If you have a phone with 64G, that can make a world of difference. Even if you do not have a memory issue, you can free up space on your screen to find the Apps you do use.

The storage for your other Apps are also listed so you can choose to remove the data or the App if you are not using them.

Trained Monkey?

If you have notifications turned on on your phone, it’s easy to look like a trained monkey in a lab experiment. Every time there’s a notification, we react. Unless you have small children with a babysitter, you do not need to respond instantly. You can turn off email notices so you only look at them when you have time or interest.

Choosing to silence text messages at meals and other times is also an option. Placing the phone in “Airplane Mode” during dinner is an example. One of my daughters does “phone stacking” with her friends. When having drinks or a meal, they stack their phones in the center of the table. The first person to use their phone picks up the tab for the meal/drinks. It is a strong incentive and it works.

Do Not Disturb

If you have not discovered the “Do Not Disturb” feature, check it out. You can set times of the day or night you do not want to receive calls. Mine is set from 10:00 PM to 6:30 AM. You can make exceptions for the contacts on your phone, or your Favorites list on your phone. If someone calls twice in 3 minutes you can allow them to get through. If you are in an important all-day meeting or other event, you can easily adjust the start and stop times to control interruptions. There is also the ability turn on “Do Not Disturb” while driving.