How to communicate while working remotely
Up until now we all were contacted mainly by phone or email but nowadays everything is changing and companies using multiple communication tools,
Often all at the same time, we have ZOOM, Skype, Messenger, FaceTime, Slack, VOIP, SIP, mobile, landline, you name it! It is hard to stay consistent when you use all of these and when people are trying to reach you using all of them.
The best and most effective way to do it properly is to set the boundaries and make sure you use these tools for specific tasks or for specific audience. For instance let your coworkers to contact you via Skype, email or phone, while don’t give your customers Skype, don’t give them any instant message contact as that way you are risking yourself to endless waste of time, this may sound harsh but that’s what it is. You need to stay effective as much as possible and you need to cut all the nonsense short. You can always be contacted by email so you don’t have or feel a pressure to reply instantly.
The second way to stay on top of any communication is to set realistic goals. Make sure you open yourself to certain apps and tools only during specific hours which suit you best, make sure there is no contact during weekend as this would affect your work-life balance. All these communication tools should have either “do not disturb” or invisible setting unless you want to switch them off completely so you lose awareness of who is contacting you. Also make sure people don’t have multiple ways contacting you as they will try all of them and sadly they will do that at the same time!
Make sure you realise who is capable of wasting your time and who is affecting your workflow, make sure these people will face difficulties contacting you as you don’t want to blow your time away. It is better to focus on task in hand instead. Make sure there is no “outside” contact made from family members or friends, this too can hold you up. Remember that by always being available to people, you create some sort of expectation that you are always there. Make sure this does not happening!
When communicating you want to make sure that your messages are clear, ideally you want to leave them in writing, whatever is said verbally often can be forgotten or changed without your consent, whatever is in writing it is like a proof, someone can always revert to it and if they delete it by the error, you will have copy of it. It is very easy to get yourself into never ending battle, make sure (how many times I said “make sure” now?) you set realistic goals and targets. You don’t want to spend more hours sacrificing your personal life thanks to setting up high expectations.
Once again, use your technology to limit technology. Nowadays all apps and programs can be set to your liking, you can monitor as well as control who is contacting you, which program is operating at what hours and so on. Don’t be scared to set yourself as “do not disturb” if you really don’t want to be disturbed, these settings has been made for you to use them!
What is your favourite communication tool or tools? How many are you using when working remotely?
Feel free to let me know in the comments section below.
All the best,
Lucas
