One of the most impactful levers on our productivity and satisfaction with our day is how we manage our communications – email, Slack, WhatsApp, etc.

If we reply to messages as they come in, with the intention of being helpful and unblocking others, our attention is immediately divided between two things. Unfortunately, our brain is incapable of doing two things at once – all it can do is switch between tasks.

But the switching itself consumes energy. So we’re more likely to get tired quicker and become more easily frustrated. In short – we’re not being effective and we’re not a nice person to be around.

A quote to keep in mind

“Energy flows where attention goes.”

– Tony Robbins

How to manage your communications

I know it’s going to sound crazy … but have you considered having set hours for replying to all your communications at once?

It doesn’t need to be once a day – you can start with 3 or even 4 times a day. As long as you have an ‘emergency procedure’ in place, both you and those around you will benefit from it. It’s the single change that has had a very significant impact on so many of my coaching clients.