Time Matters
*** Rant Warning ***
I’ve been getting a lot of commentary from various random directions, mostly boiling down to, “How do you have the time for all those things you do?”
Time management is a key skill. It’s also a constant work in progress for me. Despite all the recent wonderful compliments – both sincere and yes, backhanded – I’m still not as productive as I have set my goals for myself to be.
I’m working on it.
That said, I’ve also been very cognizant of the time I ask from others. We all have busy lives, life challenges, deadlines and goals. We check in on our friends, try to be good friends ourselves and loving family members. I try to value the time my friends and family give me and even more importantly, respect the time my professional colleagues give me.
When I write an email inquiry to any professional contact, I keep in mind the ballpark statistic: takes about 10 minutes to read, consider, and respond to the average email. The longer the email, the more questions and the more complex they are and it’ll take longer to respond. It’s not just how long it takes them to get back to me, it’s respecting the time they took to respond to me at all when I’m one of many authors they work with through the course of a day. In order to respect their time, and get the clearest response possible here’s a few considerations I make:
Make sure I know exactly what I’m asking.
Make sure the answers aren’t already available somewhere. FAQ = Frequently Asked Questions. Almost every site has them. Read them first. Save everyone some time.
Write my remaining question(s) with CAC: Clarity, Accuracy, Conciseness
If I am presenting a problem and seeking advice, I do NOT sit back and expect them to fabricate a solution. I present possible solutions I’ve done the work to put together and ask for their wisdom on which course of action they’d recommend taking. It’s not their job to do my thinking for me.
I am decisive. I make it clear what the point of my email is and what outcome I’m hoping to achieve. Even if it’s asking for advice, the end goal is to execute a course of action and I already know what the course of action will be. (see above) This way, they also know what I will do and don’t waste time waiting to see. Truth of the matter: they’re too busy, they won’t waste their time to wait and see.
I am thankful. No matter what, I am sincere in thanking them for their time.
Do unto others…I really hope people contacting me will do the same. Because to be honest, I’m on deadline and I’m scrambling for time.
Here’s a quick, but very handy Time Management presentation for those of you cognizant of both your time and that of others:
