No matter your field, your communication style, or your organizational habits, you’re likely bound to the holy quartet of organizational work tools: email, conference call, chat, and calendar. On Blinkist’s blog Page 19, Caitlin Schiller diagnoses a lot of the wasted time and unproductiveness that plagues the modern working world as misuse of said work tools. Consider the common problems of workplace chat that likely plague you, as they do all modern professionals at one time or another:
The main problem with office chat is that people feel freer to write off-the-cuff questions because they’re not technically interrupting—the recipient can still choose whether or not to respond. The thing is, we’re reactive creatures, and we feel that we need to stop what we’re doing and attend to the people who ping us. Even though your intention with getting in touch by chat is to be unobtrusive, you have little control over whether your colleague’s work is interrupted. If she sees a message notification, chances are she’ll look. Even if she doesn’t respond outright, a portion of her focus will now be diverted by your remark or question. In general, chat should only be used for quick questions that are keeping you from moving forward with your work, or to set up a time with a co-worker to talk through a larger issue. Anything else, put in an email so you’re not disturbing your colleagues.
When in doubt, only chat if you would want to be chatted. The caveat, of course, is that, best practices aside, everyone has slightly different preferences and affinities when it comes to work tools. So: ask the handful of people with whom you work most closely what their specific inclinations are when it comes to using chat, and also email, phone call, or calendar invites, so you can maximize your collective productivity. One person may prefer that you email them even with yes/no questions rather than interrupt their workflow with a drive-by. Another may want to untangle a project snafu together over chat rather than phone so that there’s a written record he or she can refer back to later. For most creatives, especially when it comes to work tools, getting sh*t done is a team sport and there’s no one-size-fits-all uniform.
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