How Not To Let People Hijack Your Day With Phone Calls

Unchecked, the people in your life can hijack your entire day with phone calls, drop-ins, “quick” questions, e-mail, correspondence,text messages, favors, commitments, visits, breakfast meetings, lunches, dinners, school conferences, and so on.
We certainly want and need people in our lives.And often there’s no one person to blame for our lost days. Most of us are blessed with too many people in our lives, too much of a good thing.“Dealing with people” can refer to managing a sales force, teaching a college course, interacting with family members, or persuading an audience to enroll in your insurance plan.


The Telephone
Not much has changed. It’s up to you to decide whether the telephone is your friend or your worst enemy. The average American spends about 40 minutes per day on the telephone. If you’re spending much more than this, you might examine where your telephone time goes.


Never answer the telephone.

- Use voice mail or an answering service or machine, or have an assistant take messages. (Caller ID allows you to take a call you’re expecting.) If you testdrive this strategy for several weeks, you will note an increase in productivity. (And don’t feel bad—many people prefer leaving a message to speaking with an actual person.)

- Return all calls once or twice a day (perhaps before lunch or before quitting time or dinner, times that provide a natural excuse for keeping calls brief). The person who makes the call generally controls the conversation, which means that you can determine its length.

- When appropriate, get the other person’s direct telephone number, so that you don’t have to go through a third party.

- Your voice mail, answering machine, or assistant should state clearly when you will return calls—for example, morning calls before noon and afternoon calls before leaving the office.When you are out of the office, your message says that you will return calls on such-and-such a date. If you use an answering machine, alert callers if their response time is limited (“You have 90 seconds to leave a message”). Tell people the best time to reach you, for example, “after 4:00 p.m.”

- Before making a call, jot down or note mentally the points you need to cover.While you are on the phone, take notes on the conversation. After hanging up from each call, enter in your computer daybook the name of the person called and the salient points discussed.We think we’ll never forget certain things. The only thing that is certain is that we will forget some of what we said and when we said it. Be nice to yourself: take notes.

- When you simply need to leave information or ask a question and don’t need to speak with the person, call after hours and leave a message on voice mail or an answering machine.

- When you want to leave a short-winded message with a long-winded person, put it in an e-mail.

- If phone time is a big part of your day, buy headphones. Spend a little extra time and money to get a set that will make your life easier.

- If you choose to answer the phone, say, as soon as possible,“How may I help you?” or “What can I do for you?” or a casual “What’s up?” If you’re a naturally genial individual, repress the urge to wax friendly: “How are you?” or “What’s new with you?” People like you receive more than your share of phone calls for a reason. If you need to cut back on your phone time, ask yourself if you need to be über-friendly with everyone.

- Sales and fundraising calls can be stopped by listing your home or cell phone number on the National Do Not Call Registry. Either visit http://donotcall.gov or call 1-888-382-1222. As of February 2008,once you register, you will remain on it permanently. Telemarketers, surveyors, and fundraisers can call those who have had business contacts with them, so you may still receive unwanted calls. If you do, say—in these exact words—“Put my number on your don’t-call list.”According to Federal Communications Commission (FCC) regulations, once you’ve said this sentence, the telemarketer is prohibited from calling you again for 10 years.

- Call-waiting is helpful when you are indeed waiting for a specific call. In that case, alert the person you are speaking with that you’re expecting a call and may have to hang up to take it. Then, if you need to interrupt your call, the other person understands. In general, the advantage of call-waiting is that you can continue to talk, knowing that instead of a busy signal, the second caller is getting your voice mail. If you are the one who is on hold while someone takes that second call, call-waiting is a nuisance and a time-waster. Advice columnist and author Jeanne Marie Laskas says, “I am anti call-waiting. I think it’s the rudest invention since the burp.” For those who insist on using call-waiting, this is what she insists upon: “If I am put on hold, it’s quite all right for me to hang up and wait for the person to call me back after he or she has finished the other call.” You may go and do likewise.

- Telephone issues in a home office are stickier because many people seem to think that “working at home” is not the same as “working.” You, more than most, need to depend on caller ID and return calls only at certain times of the workday.

- Most of the same telephone principles apply to cell phones.However, many cell phone users seem to believe that the ringing or vibrating of a cell phone has priority over every other activity and human being in the vicinity. Calls are naturally prohibited in meetings and at public events, but often a friendly colleague or good friend will take a call while you’re standing there in mid-sentence, a third party to an unwanted conversation, wasting your time. If at all possible, leave the person and return to your desk, go to another room, or pick up some work and get busy. Afterward, depending on your relationship with the person, explain that you’ve lost your train of thought and need to get back to whatever you were doing or tell people bluntly that you barely have time for your own calls, let alone theirs.

How to Cut a Call Short

No matter what you do, a particularly persistent person may continue to talk until your deodorant gives out and your ears are twitching. You often know in advance who these callers are, so immediately say something like:

- “The next two minutes are all yours, and then I’ve got to run.”
- “I’ve got exactly three minutes—will that help, or would you rather call back?”
- “I have a minute now, but if it takes longer, I’ll have to call you back.”
- “I have a meeting in five minutes, and I still have to put some papers together. Can I do something for you in that time?”
- “Hi! I have someone in my office just now, but if I can answer a quick question, I’d be happy to.”
- “Can you tell me about it quickly? I have to run.”
- “I’ve got to pick Sam up in a few minutes, but tell me why you called.”
- “Actually, I just have a minute. Is that enough, or shall I call you back?”
- “I’m up against a deadline. Can it wait until tomorrow?”
- “I’m working to a really tight deadline today. Is there something I can do for you fairly quickly?”
- “Someone’s just coming in for a meeting.May I call you back?”
- “We’re about to sit down to dinner. Is there something we can settle quickly?”

To end a call, try one of these lines:

- “All right, then, that seems clear enough. I’ll get on it right away. Good-bye.”
- “Thanks for your call. I’ve made a note, and I’ll call you as soon as I know anything.”
- “My boss just walked in. I’ve got to go.”
- “Uh-oh, meeting time. I’ve got to run. Thanks for calling.”
- “I’m going to be late for an appointment if I don’t leave now.”
- “I’m sorry I don’t have more time to talk just now, but we’ll catch up next time.”
- “I hope I’m not rushing you, but I’ve got a meeting.”
- “I won’t keep you. I know you’re busy.”
- “Is there anything else we need to talk about before I head out for my meeting?”
- “I was going to tell you about . . . but, no, I see I’ve got to run.”

If you can interrupt yourself (as in the last example) rather than the other person, it makes your ending the call more plausible and tactful.
Sometimes you dread returning a call because it always ends up taking at least 20 minutes. If you can’t e-mail the person with an adequate response, begin your conversation with something like, “I just have a couple of minutes, but I wanted to get back to you.”And then, after a couple of minutes, indicate that your time is up.
If you are seriously bedeviled with telephone calls from people you either don’t choose to or can’t bear to discourage, you might try something a little underhanded that is, however, effective when used judiciously. Tiny telephone refrigerator magnets sound like real phones when they ring. When a conversation has outlasted your patience, tap the nearby magnet and the person on the other end will hear a ringing phone. Say, “I hope you’ll excuse me, but I should take this call.”You can’t overuse this strategy, but only you know how desperate you become at times with the long-winded.

Sources: The Art Of Organizing Anything by Rosalie Maggio