StartSpeedReading.com

Photo by Robby van Moor

I bet everyone gets called by salespeople, who offer life insurance, health magazine or real estate. These calls often happen when we are busy, so they really disturb us a lot. The worst thing is that in most cases we have absolutely no interest in these products we are being offered, but at the same time we just cannot end these calls.

If you will ask me how I personally handle these situations, then I will say that there is always a possibility to hang up the phone. When you are using a cellular phone, then you have to just press one button and you will stop wasting your time. For being sure that I do not miss an offer that is useful for me (actually I have never had any salesperson calling me and offering anything I am interested in), I would ask right away, what service or product you are offering to me. If there is no straight answer I will firmly ask him to tell me and if I do not get it in a few seconds I would say:”No, thanks. I am not interested in your offer. Good Bye!” and hang up immediately. If I get the answer then there is 99.99% probability that I will end that call in the same way.

Still, most people do not want to handle these situations in a similar way. They will think that it is impolite to do it so. And so it happens that they get into long conversation with the salesperson. Some people even like talking to them, but isn’t there any better uses for our time. Still, the time flies and at some point we want to end the call, but it may seem to be difficult.

There is always a possibility to firmly refuse and hang up (or even hang up without saying anything). But if you do not want to use it, then I will offer you some strategies that will work:

• Say that you have already purchased that product. It will work for the most cases, except if the salesperson starts offering you another product, which usually does not happen.
• Tell repetitively that you are not going to buy the product. Do not give any arguments. If the salesman asks for them, just repeat that you are not going to buy. If you have told him that you are not going to buy five times in a row then there is a high probability that he will give up.
• Anticipate the salesman. If a salesman talks to you endless about how good his products are then interrupt his monologue by saying that you are not interested in his offer. If you could anticipate the point the salesman is driving and tell it to him before he reaches to it in his monologue, then many salesmen feel defeated and end the call.
• Do not ask questions. If you start asking questions about the offer, then you give the salesperson the possibility to answer them and you will get deep into the conversation.
• Pretend that you have to answer an other call. At least it will allow you to end the conversation for that time although it may happen that you are called again by the same sales person.

And still, there is always a possibility to simply hang up the phone. Salesmen get that kind of an experience regularly and they do not take it as insulting. In fact, if you are not going to buy anyway and you finish the call quickly, then you do a favor to that salesman as it helps to save his time too and he can use it for calling to the next prospect.

kristjan time management phone call, sales

Photo by Appfrica

Most of us are spending a considerable portion of their working time reading and writing e-mails. An average office worker spends 1-2 hours daily, dealing with email, which is up to 25% of working time. We may have tens or hundreds of emails waiting for us when we arrive in the office and it may take a lot of time to deal with them.

But what if we could handle our mail faster? We will have more time for other work tasks then and we could finish our day earlier. Following I will give you some tips how you can save time on e-mail communication:

• Decide when you read your e-mails. Having certain times during a day to read emails is a good time management practice. Checking e-mail twice a day is enough for most of us. The advantage of dealing with incoming mail on a certain time is that you will deal with a large number of mails together. In total, it will take you less time to read your mails in comparison of checking mail for every hour and dealing with only a small number of them at one time.
• Deal with one mail only once. You should open a message only one. After opening it read it through immediately (if is worth reading) and make a decision what are you going to with it. Are you going to reply to it, forward it to others, are there any actions to be taken by you? Make that decision at once.
• Learn to speed read. Speed reading techniques will enable you to work through you mail faster and you will save a lot of time.
• Send less mail out. Avoid sending mail when there is no need for it. In many cases making a phone call is more efficient than sending an e-mail. Before writing a mail ask yourself is it better to call or send mail on that occasion. Do not send jokes, videos and other funny stuff to other people. It wastes your and their time.
• Keep you messages short. Writing shorter messages will cost you less time, but you will also save the time of the recipient. Write a clear heading to the mail, so that it could be understood at once what the message is about. A good email starts we a call to action, it means that you tell at one what do you want to achieve with this mail, for example organize a meeting, send a report, ask for permission etc. Next, there should be the details of the issue in the middle part of the message, where you present the relevant information. Finally, the message should have a clear conclusion, where you summarize main points and repeat the call to action.
• Delete spam immediately. Do not waste your time on reading junk mail. Usually the mail program can send that kind of mail automatically to the spam folder and you should not waste time on reading these mails. Still, some times may happen that the spam filters send mails that you need to the spam folder. Therefore before deleting spam you should check the sender and title of these mails.
• Teach others to send you less mail. You are likely to receive 80% of mail from 20% of addresses, which belong to the people you work in close relations. If you tell them not to send unnecessary mail, then you can reduce the amount of your incoming mail.

kristjan time management communication, email, phone call, speed reading techniques, work tasks

Picture by kiwanja

Telephone can be very efficient tool for communication if it is used in a right way. At the same time it can be a huge time-waster as many people spend hours on the phone and basically talk about nothing. We spend a considerable share of our working time on talking on the phone and therefore making the calls more efficient can save a considerable amount of time.

What is an efficient phone call? It depends what we want. In case of business calls we want to achieve some kind of result, it can be making other people to make an action or gaining information. In the first case we may want to organize a meeting, give orders to other persons or make other person to buy a product. In the second case we may want to get a phone number or opinion from other people. In many cases there can be many tasks you want to achieve with one phone call. If you achieve these goals in short time, then it makes a phone call efficient.

Before calling someone think what you are going to achieve with it. Write down the goals of a phone call. Make a plan. Keep also relevant information, for example emails, project documentation etc. which is going to support your discussion, handy. If you need to start searching a file or an email from you computer during the call, then it will be a huge waste of time. Be prepared for the call.

In order for you or business call to be successful you make the purpose of the call clear for the person you are calling at the beginning. In case of a business call you should follow the rule of 3-point introduction, which means that you should tell him your name, affiliation and reason for calling. Although some social conversation can act as an ice-breaker and will make your discussion easier, it should not last more than half a minute. If you want to be effective then you have to get to the point in short time.

It is important that you stick to the plan during the phone call. Avoid starting conversation on the irrelevant topics. If your partner starts talking about other issues then you may suggest discussing them some other time. Keep the written goals beside the phone. Every time you have achieved one goal, make a tick mark on it. It will help you to follow the plan.

If there is no possibility to achieve one goal during a telephone conversation then accept it and move to the other goal. For example, if the person you are calling is not sure about his opinion on some question and needs to think about it then give him a deadline for that.

If you have accomplished the objectives of the call then you should bring the call to the end. It can happen that you have got the desired results in short time, but then the call develops into a social conversation, which last for 10 minutes. In order to prevent this from happening you have to know how to conclude the call. It is a good idea to repeat the main decisions you made in the call. For example, you may remind that you decided to meet on Tuesday at 2 PM and that you will look through the budget of the project, while your partner has to take contact with the marketing team and to work out the marketing strategy. It will guarantee that both sides have not misunderstood their tasks and it gives a signal that it is time to say good bye. If the other person you are speaking with is very talkative then you may start concluding the call, with the phrase. “Before we are going to end, I would like to say….”

kristjan time management goals, phone call

Photo by garryknight

Using a telephone can help you to save a lot of time and make your activities efficient, but at the same time it can be a huge time . A telephone is a good communication tool for some situations, while it is not so wise to use it in under other circumstances. If you want to use your time efficiently you have to know when it is appropriate to choose telephone as a medium for communication.

Making a phone call is justified, when you have to reach a person immediately. In comparison to written communication, which is slower as it may take a whole day to get a reply to your email, by making a phone call you can contact a person in seconds.

Phone calls allow instant two-way communication. In some cases it will be possible to make conference calls with more than two participants, but these types of phone calls are not commonly used.

At the same time phone call is interrupting. If you have not agreed with other person when will call, which is true for most of the phone calls, then you do not know what he/she is doing. In comparison to sending an e-mail with a recipient can read and answer when he/she wants, there is no such a possibility for a phone call. You have to answer the phone and talk when you are calling. It means that making a phone call will consume other peoples time more than sending e-mail and therefore we have to respect their time (if we want other people to respect our time) and do not make unnecessary calls.

Making a phone call is a good solution in following cases:

• Getting a fast opinion. If you have to make a decision and need an opinion of conformation from other person then a phone call will allow you to get it fast. For example, you need a conformation for making a purchase. It is important that the other side has the relevant background information, so you do not have to explain him all the details.
• Schedule an appointment.  If we want to meet an other person then making a phone call is an efficient way to agree the time and place of the appointment. To make it more efficient we should send the other party the relevant information he/she needs to be informed before meeting us by e-mail.
• Delivering fast messages. If there is anything that the other person needs to get to know fast then call him as it is the most efficient way of doing it. So using a phone is required in all kinds of emergencies and situations, which call for fast action. As the other person may not be able to answers the call, then you can send him a text message or leave a message to the voice mail.
• Social conversation. Telephone is a tool for keeping in touch with our business partners, friends and relatives. By making a phone call there are more possibilities for delivering emotions than sending an e-mail. At the same time it is not as time consuming as meeting people face-to-face. Phone calling allows us to keep in touch with our networks.
• Sending good news to a small number of people. If you want to appreciate someone for a good job or thank for a favor then making a call is a quick and easy way to do it. Making a call is more personal then sending a thank you e-mail and it will be more helpful for building warm relations. Similarly, it is a good idea to send good news to a couple of persons (if the number of recipients is higher then send e-mail as phoning people one by one will take too much time). Make a phone call to tell your team-member that our project was approved and see how much delight you can create with it.

Making a phone call is not a good solution in following cases:

• Delivering facts and information. If you have to send detailed information, which you want the other person to remember, then it is sensible to send it by e-mail. It is inefficient to read a price list by phone ant let the other person to write it down. In a similar way detailed information about products, time plans or meeting agendas should not be talked by phone.
• Complex discussions with many participants. While it is a good way to ask an option from one or two person by phone calling them, it will be a waste of time to discuss problems with ten people by phoning them one-by one. If there is a need to make decisions, where the active participation of a greater number of people is needed, then it will better to meet.

kristjan time management communication, phone call, time management

For making a successful business call you have to make it on a right time. If you call your partner or client at the time he/she is busy then typically two cases can happen. In the first case the person you are calling cannot be reached, which means that you have to call him later. If that happens then you have to make a phone call during a time period, which you have not initially planned for doing it as you hoped to have made the call at once. In the second case the person you are calling will answer the phone, but his/he focus is on other urgent tasks, which affects the quality of your conversation.

The best time for making business phone calls is right after lunch. During the lunch people usually chat with other people, which helps them to relax and makes them open to new ideas. Communicating to other people during lunch makes the prepared to receive your phone call. Call them before they will dig in to their work again.

The second best time to make a phone call is during the middle-morning around 10 AM. By that time people have usually finished the most urgent work tasks. Still they have not become tired yet nor their are about to leave the office for lunch.

You should not make an outgoing call during the first working hour, which is normally before 9 AM. Think how you start your day in the office. What are the things that you do during the first hour? Probably you are reviewing you schedule, checking your email, preparing for the rest of the day. A phone call will interrupt you, which could give a negative effect on your whole day. Many people are very productive during the early morning hours like I am, therefore they work on the most demanding tasks during these hours. If they have good time management practices then they may not even answer the phone.

It is not a good idea to make a call right before lunch time of in the end of the work day. In the first case, the person you are calling may hurry with his work as he wants to keep up with his/her schedule by the lunchtime. Many people do not want to be late for lunch, they may have a habit of meeting colleagues at a certain time for going out to lunch together. If you call someone who is heading for lunch, then he/she may not be too much willing to talk to you. If you make a call at 4.45 PM then you are likely to disturb a person from completing the last tasks of the day and you will not let him to go home with your call.

If possible then make your phone calls in blocks. It means that you will do all your phone calls in a row. For example, if you have to call 10 clients then you will make these calls in a sequence. This will help you to get into a good rhythm and you will be more efficient. But if you scatter your calls at different times throughout your work day, then every time you will spend some time when preparing to make the call (thinking about what you will say, building confidence, procrastinating etc.)

As you can see there exist certain times during a day when you should make your outgoing phone calls. It just takes a little bit a planning, but I is worth doing it as making the calls at right time, will both help you to save time and get better results from your calls.

kristjan time management efficiency, phone call, productivity

Most of us are spending a considerable portion of their working time reading and writing e-mails. An average office worker spends 1-2 hours daily, dealing with email, which is up to 25% of working time. We may have tens or hundreds of emails waiting for us when we arrive in the office and it may take a lot of time to deal with them.

But what if we could handle our mail faster? We will have more time for other work tasks then and we could finish our day earlier. Following I will give you some tips how you can save time on e-mail communication:

• Decide when you read your e-mails. Having certain times during a day to read emails is a good time management practice. Checking e-mail twice a day is enough for most of us. The advantage of dealing with incoming mail on a certain time is that you will deal with a large number of mails together. In total, it will take you less time to read your mails in comparison of checking mail for every hour and dealing with only a small number of them at one time.
• Deal with one mail only once. You should open a message only one. After opening it read it through immediately (if is worth reading) and make a decision what are you going to with it. Are you going to reply to it, forward it to others, are there any actions to be taken by you? Make that decision at once.
• Learn to speed read. Speed reading techniques will enable you to work through you mail faster and you will save a lot of time.
• Send less mail out. Avoid sending mail when there is no need for it. In many cases making a phone call is more efficient than sending an e-mail. Before writing a mail ask yourself is it better to call or send mail on that occasion. Do not send jokes, videos and other funny stuff to other people. It wastes your and their time.
• Keep you messages short. Writing shorter messages will cost you less time, but you will also save the time of the recipient. Write a clear heading to the mail, so that it could be understood at once what the message is about. A good email starts we a call to action, it means that you tell at one what do you want to achieve with this mail, for example organize a meeting, send a report, ask for permission etc. Next, there should be the details of the issue in the middle part of the message, where you present the relevant information. Finally, the message should have a clear conclusion, where you summarize main points and repeat the call to action.
• Delete spam immediately. Do not waste your time on reading junk mail. Usually the mail program can send that kind of mail automatically to the spam folder and you should not waste time on reading these mails. Still, some times may happen that the spam filters send mails that you need to the spam folder. Therefore before deleting spam you should check the sender and title of these mails.
• Teach others to send you less mail. You are likely to receive 80% of mail from 20% of addresses, which belong to the people you work in close relations. If you tell them not to send unnecessary mail, then you can reduce the amount of your incoming mail.

kristjan time management email, phone call, sending mail, speed reading techniques, working time