Evena three-second distractioncan negatively affect your productivity.
Phone calls require you to abandon what you’re doing and divert your focus elsewhere.
Eliminating the interruption of phone calls just makes sense.
I’ll definitely respond there.
I’m cutting out work phone calls to avoid constant disruption.
Once someone texts you,use MightyText to reply from your PC.
In fact, I haveset up Gmail as a productivity hubso that texting and email happens from it.
If you’re on an iPhone,try myPhoneDesktopfor the same features.
Of course, if you use a Mac, you should justwait for OS X Yosemite and its Continuityfeature.
Some people will still insist on calling you.
And there are some calls, like your boss or your client, which you might’t ignore.
Schedule: Add it to yourto-do listso you don’t forget.
I’ve switched to a new app calledCall Planner to schedule calls.
I prefer to block time slots in my schedule specifically for returning calls.
Instead, now I set up the time block first and accommodate all the calls in that.
It forces me to wrap up calls quickly and to get to the point faster.
Once you’re there, set up your communication so that regular callers know you are busy.
Set your instant messenger status so that coworkers know now to disturb you.
To quickly regain focus once you hang up, useErnest Hemingway’s trick of stopping mid-sentence.
