Tag Archives: time

Get what you want, more often: how to communicate with busy people

In any job, it is likely that you’ll have to communicate with people in writing, be it applying, asking for help or for others to do something for you. This is something we do without much thought, we just write what we want to convey. But, have you ever sent off an email and had no response? Crickets…

Everyone is very busy. If you asked your colleagues, friends or family, I can almost guarantee most would say they wish they had more time. People get on average 100 messages a day, and in the working world, 100 emails a day. So when we are communicating with people, we are asking them to give us some of their already precious time, amongst a sea of other requests. When I’m asking someone to give me some of their time, it’s important I make my request as clear as possible, and make the time-commitment as little as possible because that means they are more likely to do whatever it is I’m asking.

There is a great talk by Todd Rogers from Harvard University detailing the science of corresponding with busy people. However, on the topic of saving time, here are the five points on how to more effectively communicate with people.

1. Use as few words as possible

  • We think we really need to set the scene for a request, often leading with an explanation of what we are doing and finishing with a request of the reader. However, reading big blocks of text makes most people’s eyes gloss over. A more effective way to communicate is to just cut to the chase. Introduce yourself and ask your question, cut the lengthy explanation in the middle. Rogers showed when the number of words is reduced, focussing on only the main point, there was a 78% higher response rate.
  • This is counter intuitive, because we would assume more information explaining why someone should do our request would improve response rates, but it doesn’t, it just makes people lose attention.

2. Make the text as easy to read as possible

  • The more effort the reader has to put in to read your text, the less likely they are to respond. Think about most academic papers, it’s really hard to focus because it is often written to be understood by experts. Compare that to a buzzfeed article, it’s hard to stop reading it is so simply written. Obviously they are two extremes, but the point is, if you write something as basic as possible, it will be more likely to be read.
  • The way to do this is to reduce the number of syllables per word, ie. simple words; reduce the number of words per sentence, stick to one simple idea; and keep the grammar simple.

3. Use formatting to direct attention

  • If you write something in a block of text with no paragraphs, no highlighting or bolding, you’re not letting people skim easily, making them less likely to actually take any of it in. You WANT people to be able to skim your writing, so make the important parts bolded or highlighted. I’m sure when you read the paragraph in point 1, you read the heading, then the highlighted section, with my main point.
  • Highlighting is a powerful way to draw attention, but it can also work against you, because it makes people less likely to read the rest of the text, so use it carefully. Also, do not overuse it, because if you highlight a whole paragraph, it loses its power, and nothing becomes highlighted. Think back to a time when you highlighted paragraphs in textbooks, I guarantee not much of it stuck.

4. Make the key information obvious and noticeable

  • Ensure that your main points jump out to the reader immediately. Think the subject of an email, the first sentence, last sentence, bolded/highlighted sections. Allowing readers to skim the text makes a response more likely.

5. Make the response required as quick / easy as possible

  • If the person who is reading your request has to jump through hoops, no matter how simple it may be, the request is less likely to be met. A strategy I’ve employed is to re-phrase open ended questions like “What do you think about this …” which takes a long response, to be a closed-question, which is much simpler for the respondent, “I think this… please let me know if that is okay.” This just takes a simple “Yep, sounds good” from the respondent, making a response much more likely. Even better, depending on the situation, you could also say “I am planning on doing XXX, please let me know if that is not okay.” By doing that, you are making them opt-out, so you don’t even require a response.

Summary

Everyone is very busy so its important our communication is as clear and easy on the reader as possible

  • Write as simply, and as briefly as possible
  • Use formatting to allow people to skim the most important parts
  • Make the response as easy as possible

I recommend watching the video for a more in-depth explanation of how effective these strategies are and some more concrete examples of them.

The Yearly Review

I’ve talked previously about the power of the weekly review, looking back at your week and seeing how it was. Today I did my yearly review, looking back on my goals for the year and grading myself on how I went. I would also reflect on the goals and justify to myself the grade I got. This was a really enjoyable experience. I blocked out 2 hours in my afternoon and just reflected on my year.

I realised that I actually have had a great year, I have grown so much as a person, which is one of my biggest indicators of success. I also realised what the gaps in my focus have been.

The reason I think that everyone should be doing this or something similar is that it allows you to realise what you have achieved or haven’t achieved. This can be lost in the moment when you’re only reflecting day to day or even week to week. I believe that examining your life is crucial to being successful and growing as a person.

What to do on holidays

I’m just about to finish my degree before I start my honours and this will be my last ever ‘holiday.’ Today I got asked, “what are you going to do with your last holidays.” The question took me aback a little as I realised that this was actually really important, it’s the last time I’m going to have ‘nothing’ to do, and can spend all my time where I want to. My first thought was I want to write more often, and higher quality, which is good, my second is to get into the habit of meditating every day for an hour, but beyond that I didn’t have much.

This really made me think, how do I want to spend my time. I’ve spent the last few months writing posts about where I want to spend my time, how to maximise your time and how you should just do what you want; but when the time has come I’m a bit lost. I believe this is a classic case of where you simply have to do. I think there is no better way to learn about you more than having free time; the true priorities come out. You may spend your time watching youtube videos, you may start a business, you may read or study a lot.

I’m almost inclined not to schedule my days apart from a few things like writing and meditation and see where it takes me, seeing where my true priorities lie. This may be a recipe for disaster, but it’s an experiment I’m interested to try.

How much is your time worth?

A year or two ago I was introduced to the idea of valuing your time. When I say valuing I don’t mean simply thinking your time is important, but trying to put a dollar figure on each hour. We all know our time is valuable, but how much do we think it’s worth. Some people argue an hour of their time is thousands of dollars, others don’t value it much at all. I like the concept of this because it makes me think a bit more critically about what I say yes to and what I don’t.

Increasingly (for better or worse) I decide to skip social events I’m not too keen on because I don’t want to ‘waste’ my time; I’d prefer to spend that 3 hours sleeping, or doing some work. I think this is a nice little exercise to just remind ourselves that time is our only truly non-renewable resource, and we should value it highly.

Don’t commit, value your time

Have you ever committed to an event, meeting or agreed to do anything in advance, and regretted it? I know I have.

I heard a story of Warren Buffett showing Bill Gates his diary in an effort to impart some knowledge on how he organises his time. You would expect the diary of one of the richest men on earth to be packed to the brim. It was empty; with only a few engagements in the following months.

When I heard this it didn’t initially resonate with me. I thought, “but I’ve got to do all these meetings and have all these things on so that’s impossible for me,” dismissing it. That was until today when I was thinking about my honours year, planning on committing myself to all these different projects well in advance. I realised this was the exact trap Buffett was talking about when he passed Gates his calendar. By committing to anything in advance you’re assuming that what is important right now will continue to be important then. I know that what’s important in the morning will be different to that afternoon, so why do I expect that things will have the same importance in the coming weeks and months?

It is impossible to know what you will want to do in the future or what opportunities may be presented to you. This is why it’s important to keep your options open, so you can embrace new opportunities as they present themselves, rather than regretting committing to yet another meeting.

Why are you working so hard?

This is a question I’ve always dismissed because I was studying and wasn’t really working. Recently this has changed since I’ve been on placement almost full time. I’m now, for the first time, spending the vast majority of my time working. I’ve also seen the time I spend doing things like going to the gym, spending time helping around the house and importantly sleeping has all decreased, which I’m not happy about. This has made me really consider what I want my future work life to look like, as you saw in my previous post about not working full time.

I think this is a question which people don’t ask themselves enough. The most common answer is, I’m sure, to earn a lot of money and then be able to retire (whatever that means) and travel, or do whatever it is they enjoy. This answer is flawed, in many ways, but it’s also a trap. You’re unlikely to just replicate your desires now, in 20, 30 or 40 years time, whenever it is, you’re values will change and you wont be able to re-coup those lost years working your ass off. An extreme example of the converse of this is to always be semi-retired, working remotely or earning money through passive income, living in a place with very low costs. Tim Ferriss shows that this isn’t as difficult as it sounds, that you can live well for 20-30k per year in a lower income country like Vietnam or Brazil. This is an extreme example, but an interesting idea. What if you weren’t deferring your life for this amazing period we call retirement but lived doing whatever it is you truly love doing, every day.

The other option, and in my opinion the ideal option is that you love doing your job every day AND it pays very well, so you can afford to go part time as soon as possible. This is something I don’t want to assume will happen because I think it’s so rare and don’t want to just jump on the corporate hamster wheel seeking this.

I’m yet to really figure out what it is that I really want to be doing, I’m not sure I ever will. My heuristic for making life decisions is, what will I enjoy most in the short term, its fared me well so far. Despite this, I feel as though I’m getting drawn more and more to what I think I should do rather than what I want to do. I have no answers, other than to continue asking myself the question “do I really enjoy what I’m doing?” The way I help myself answer that is asking if I’d do it for free, and so far, I have been doing it for free and the answer is still yes.

My biggest worry is convincing myself I like what I’m doing and not spending time doing the things I love and I think this should be the worry of most people. So why are you working so hard, and is that really the path you want to continue going down?