Permission to Be Clear Rather Than Accessible - Granted
By Tana M. Mann Easton, Lead Efficiency Engineer
Many of us feel we need to be accessible in our jobs at all hours of every day. If you want to hear an alternative point of view arguing for a lack of constant accessibility, check out Cal Newport’s podcast episode “The Email Catastrophe.” In this episode, Cal tells the story of a design company that was drowning in email, so they switched away almost entirely from digital communication. For internal communication, they had two check-ins (at the beginning of the morning and the beginning of the afternoon) to talk about what they’re working on, their obstacles, and any needs they had; and these twice daily check-ins allowed them to get away from being on Slack and email all day, allowing many more long stretches of deep work time. This company also eliminated email with their clients. They had clients sign a contract that included an addendum outlining their communication policy – signing off on how we’re going to communicate with you, how you’re going to ask us questions, when we’re going to talk to you, etc. They devised a system of weekly conference calls with their clients. At the end of each call, a written record of every question, obligation, or commitment was sent to the client. Basically, they decided to have their clients sign a contract saying their clients can’t email them. At first the client-facing partner of that company was terrified, but none of their clients cared. People almost never care about how accessible someone is at all times. They want clarity. If they have an issue, they want it to be clear how to get it resolved. If you have an alternative system like this design company had, then the clients don’t care.
I had a client who also revised his accessibility. He is a lawyer, and he used to check his email first thing after he woke up. But then he noticed that thoughts of his email would hijack his morning, and he wanted to start his day more relaxed and methodically by moving his body and centering his mind with meditation/prayer/journalling/gratitude. He decided to change the first time he checked his email to 10am. He let people know that he would be checking his email for the first time after 10am going forward, and he said he never had an issue.
I’ve also seen clarity helping to limit my accessibility in my own life. When I worked in finance, people knew I wasn’t going to answer my emails before 7:30am or after 4pm. I supported many financial advisors in both New York City and Cleveland, and not even one of those people ever had an issue with me only responding between the hours of 7:30am-4pm. They knew from conversations with me that I valued my personal time, and they also knew that I would respond to them in the morning of my next workday. They knew if they had an emergency, they could call me to get my attention faster, but that almost never happened. Once they were clear on what to expect, they were completely fine with my accessibility.
Most people, colleagues and clients, are sending emails and contacting us to simply get tasks off their plates and out of their heads. They rarely care how quickly someone responds as long as someone does respond, and the issue is resolved. If you feel like you need to be perpetually available, consider trying to experiment with less accessibility for a couple of weeks. You may come to find that the disaster scenarios your brain constantly cooks up are actually just figments of imagination.
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Sincerely Yours,
Focus to Evolve Team