Chuck

I found a simple way to lower the stress in my life and be more effective at my work. It’s something you may not consider from a tech-guy like me, but after several weeks, I find myself more productive and less stressed.

The answer – I turned off the interruptions from devices. I silenced the beeps and alerts on my email. I also close email, RSS readers, etc until I’m ready to read/answer messages. Want to try it? Start by silencing your phone when you want to get something done – that includes turning off the buzz feature. Really!

Many of those alerts are for things that don’t concern you when you’re in the moment. They distract you and

it takes brain power to get back in the moment.

I know, you’re probably saying “But Chuck, I’m in support…” or “My customers have to be able to reach me any time.” No they don’t. Think of it from the other way around. What happens when you try calling a vendor or client and they aren’t available? You leave a message. Are you offended or annoyed by this? I’m guessing not. The expectation is that they will listen and respond to your messa

ge in a reasonable amount of time. (If they’re REALLY good, their voice mail message or email out-of-office notice will list when they will and won’t be available.)

When you send email, do you expect an immediate response? Of course not. It’s an inbox, a queue, that’s what it’s for – gather messages for later processing. In fact, there are some people (particularly those in upper management) that I would question if they had enough to do if they responded immediately.

Try it for a day… see how it goes. Start with your email and your phone. Turn off alerts, sounds, display items that jump up, and anything that could take your distraction away and find out how much more you can get done. Now work!

When you’ve finished a task or problem you’ll find you get it done quicker when you’re not interrupted. A few times a day, check your messages, get them done, then put away your email, phone or whatever.

If you’ve mastered that and want to move to something more difficult, try forwarding your desk phone to voice mail? Think it’s too impersonal? OK, try this… It’s 10:00AM and your boss tells you he needs a document from you by noon. You know it’s going to take at least an hour to write. What do you do? Answer every phone call, email, and text message that gets your attention? Of course not. You focus like a laser and take those out of the way. So why is a document from your boss any different than any other task you need to get done?

Turn those things off when you really want to work.

If you do nothing else this year, keep sticking out your hand and saying hello to new people! I’ve said it before and I’ll continue to say it (since it took me so long to get it through my thick head)… your network of relationships is one of your most valuable resources you have. It can open doors for you that you never imagined. It transcends jobs, geography, and other events.

My latest example is from work. When I first got my (former) job as the global IT service desk manager, I immediately got involved with a professional organization known as HDI. My intent was to learn as much as I could about the help desk industry and what it meant to be an effective help desk manager. What I got was so much more in terms of career fulfillment. Recently they’ve grown from the help desk industry to include the desktop support group too. If you’re involved with front line IT support, I highly encourage you to get involved with this group and become a member, an officer, or some kind of contributor. You’ll be rewarded in ways you cannot imagine.

OK, back to the example. Since joining HDI nearly three years ago, I’ve gotten to know a lot of the HDI folks, other chapter officers, and quite a few members. I’ve attended (and spoken) at the last two national conferences, and served as an officer (currently president) for our local chapter. Now as I look forward to our next conference (9 months away) I was approached by our marketing team at my new job. They’ve been looking for ways to get their toe in the door to some of the IT organizations (HDI, ITSMf, AITP, etc) and I have a list of contacts that they want to leverage. It’s like I’m a sales guy and I brought my list of accounts from my successful old job. What a valuable asset. Call me near sighted, but I didn’t think of the friends I’ve been making over the past two years as leads. Even if not directly, some are program chairs for next year’s tracks and can improve our chances of speaking opportunities which increases visibility to the company and our products.

At first blush, this might seem a little cold hearted. “Chuck, are you just making contacts to get more business?” That’s not my primary reason for building relationships. First, I want to get to know a person. People are interesting. The more you talk to someone, the more you realize how much you have in common. Where there are differences, you can often complement each other and build a stronger bond. Since my friends are in charge of finding speakers for next year’s conference, I talk to them to find out what they are looking for an help them find people that may not otherwise have known how to approach the speaker submission process, in turn gaining them visibility as subject matter experts and growing their network. As the network grows, so does the business. See how that works?

Now get out there and talk to (and more importantly – listen to) people!