Last week it finally hit me, I’ve been in denial for a long time. I’ve been an administrative assistant for.…hummm, I’m not counting anymore, and have been proud of the many folders and projects and to-do lists I’ve juggled and managed and completed. Okay, so all of that is still going on, but something new crept in while I wasn’t looking…I now use FIVE different media to communicate with my co-workers, well, six if you count actually having a face-to-face conversation!
I put down the office phone last week after transferring a client’s call to Matt. Simultaneously, I was IMing with another client about press releases for his new site and in an email conversation with Leslie about a problem a client was having, when Chris called on my cell and asked for a phone number from our CRM. As soon as I hung up with him, Dan texted my cell from across the country asking about a project. Suddenly, it hit me — my to-do lists were rarely intersecting my life at that point…they were just fillers for when I wasn’t communicating.
Have you had this communication phenomenon creep into your work life? Where you find yourself distracted from completing projects because you’re sure there’s an email | text | IM | phone call you need to respond to? Actually, now that I realize I’ve split my life into so many segments, I think I’ll be able to face projects in a much more aggressive way…realizing multiple communication venues are just part of the whole picture — and make up a completely NEW to-do list. I’d love to hear your tricks for bringing your mind back to task after your google talk cloud lights up.…
