How to Be Awesome at Followup
Photo by Marloes
About people are unexceptional at following upwards: information technology sounds obvious, but it shouldn't exist this way, because followup (I spell it every bit a unmarried word) is key to combining smaller achievements into bigger ones. Actively post-obit up on conversation is besides a trait of people who're successful, focused, and relentless nearly living their dreams. Lofty nevertheless elegant — and if you excel at followup, y'all can be sure to incite delight wherever you go, too.
"Correspondences are like smallclothes before the invention of suspenders; it is impossible to keep them up." -Sydney Smith
Here's how I practice it. You'll need to discover ongoing processes that piece of work for you, just the main ideas are easy to get into!
Don't be the start to reply (or at least, give it a petty while)
This sounds counterintuitive. Say you lot get a piece of work email Cc:ed to you and several other colleagues. Should yous reply correct abroad? Unless you've already idea of a sure respond and/or it's time-sensitive, probable no. Allow it "stew" and fifty-fifty wait for someone else to respond first — yous can star it in Gmail and check the thread a twenty-four hour period or so later.
Why? First, you lot'll exist less rushed. That much is clear. Second, by letting it simmer, your heed volition take more space to digest the contents. You'll be able to slumber on information technology, and if it's really a memorable email you need to give input on, your feedback will be richer and more worthwhile than something concocted in haste. Third, you lot tin also thank the person(s) who did respond first for chiming, and consider their ideas — if they said what you had in mind, you save fourth dimension, too.
A mean solar day isn't too long anyway, and plenty of time to however be responsive. Endeavour information technology!
(Granted, this won't piece of work if all your coworkers read this… you may want to keep it a hole-and-corner! ;) )
Be a batch-processing, pirate-ninja hybrid
Some people say ninjas are the awesomest. Others will argue information technology's pirates. I like to consider what would happen if you combined both their traits: the sleek stealth of a ninja paired with the skilled sailing of a pirate.
Photo by hober
What do you get? Well, it doesn't sound equally heady equally life on the high seas assassinating renegade ronin, but here's what I mean:
When you lot become cool links shared with y'all, exist they viral videos or articles of involvement, they can be time-suckers and distractions from making progress on what you're doing now. Sure you wanna check those links out, but non yet. Instead of jumping on them right away, I utilize Firefox 3's star icon on the location bar (aka "awesomebar") to bookmark each folio with a single click to an Unsorted Bookmarks folder. You tin can access it later by going to Bookmarks menu > Organize Bookmarks, as this lovely video tutorial will evidence you:
This is exactly what I've been doing for several weeks, and I discover myself a nice berth on the weekends to chillax and peruse through one link after another. I get deeper into the content. Some are blog posts which merit a comment from me (a type of followup). Others are clips I desire to laissez passer effectually. And the remainder which aren't worth my fourth dimension? They get deleted and forgotten. Which is fine.
Related proposition: save up video clips to watch on TV. I practice this with my wife: we unsubscribed from cable and line up YouTube & friends' madness to lookout at dinner (and other times). With a DVI to video cable, we connected a MacBook Pro to our TV. Non simply did it save us money, it makes u.s.a. less passive selectors of what we consume, and raises the quality of our entertainment. And sparks give-and-take and sharing — followup!
By creating an intense, focused space for all this material, it places your experiences directly in-context of beingness receptive to both absorbing and feeding dorsum data.
Prune it… to remind yourself!
There'south no end of to-exercise reminder programs out there. My means are unproblematic: I use Google Desktop'due south To Do gadget (included with default install) which always sits on the left-hand sidebar of one of my dual monitors.
I quickly jot down brusk phrases when I'm in a rush, then have the leisure of expanding on it later — yous and even drag-and-drop to recorder, and affix manual [TAGS] for visual ease. By now, you're noticing this and the previous 2 sections are about you controlling time.
In addition to bookmarks, I use Firefox'southward Scrapbook add-on for saving parts of webpages to read offline and refer to later on (it has a handy note feature which can highlight passages but I don't use that), and EverNote (the offline app, non the version 3 beta). My point being: you don't need the nigh feature-filled tools, just ones you lot habituate to using regularly.
For time-specific, recurring stuff, you'll desire to gear up alarms and appointments. I use Google Agenda to remind me when to pay the bill and when I might wait mail-in-rebates to arrive (and then I can call if they don't) — and oh aye, it's very nice that Google Desktop also has a Agenda gadget which shows me the day's events. It'due south unintrusive, clean, and saves me daily refreshes of the Gcal webpage, which is what most people exercise. Don't be almost people.
I'm also searching for a simple, cheap, spontaneous vocalization recorder. Got suggestions? This may be overkill for some folks, only if y'all're like me and have ideas sprouting out at odd hours of the twenty-four hours, you'll want to capture those sprouts because your inventiveness is worthwhile.
Respond to the all-time
What the heck does that mean? Simply, pay attention to remarkable, amazing comments. And thankfully I've seen a lot of them on Lifehack, like Shanel Yang's. ;) Non all comments are equal and almost aren't worth followup, equally a coincidental glance of YouTube vs. Flickr can show.
But when there are:
- Eclectic questions you've never heard before (consider making a FAQ out of the ones you exercise get frequently)
- Cognition that adds to the value of your or someone else's post and makes information technology that much more useful, and
- Observations which have a inimitable brand of humour…
That's what yous're going to remember. Those words, connected to those people, is what's worth continuing a discussion for.
The simple reason is: those people are more likely to followup with you, teaching you applicable knowledge and making yous smile. The best followup, as all healthy relationships are, is reciprocal. Requite and accept. If you're drained without inspiration, you won't have the mental attitude and enthusiasm to followup.
Don't force yourself to be social, it serves no earnest purpose and volition somewhen be forgotten anyway in the body of water of the Cyberspace. Time, in one case spent, is ever depleted. If you get a lot of give thanks-you's for something you posted, don't be pressured to type a dissimilar thank-you to each and everyone. You could, if you lot're imaginative and feeling lively. But don't force information technology out — flow.
You'll larn from experience, as I accept over x,000s of forum posts and blog comments (and having earned distinguished condition like being a Lifehacker star), what followup y'all get in kind.
Apply subscribe/keyword reminders whenever possible
Obvious but underused, in my anecdotal experiences asking people if they utilize 'em.
Don't be passive: seek out integrated reminder systems! Many different spider web services have diverse implementations. You may exist a forum poster accustomed to vBulletin's subscription system, or you may use email/RSS alerts (different ways of getting the same info) on a money-saving site like dealnews.com — which is a lucid way of following upward on an detail you've wanted to buy for awhile, simply think information technology should be cheaper. Give it time and yous'll be pinged when the cost drops — Price!pinx is another tool that can help yous.
I also have a bookmark folder in Firefox called "Waiting for Answers". Information technology's a very special i, and I drop links to questions I've asked on forums, blogs, etc. I detest when the trail goes common cold to my curiosity, and I check this folder every few days. If longer than a couple weeks goes by without a reply, I'll post a reminder to "crash-land" things upwardly. Stuff resolved to my satisfaction of course gets a give thanks-y'all, and the bookmark is placed in a subfolder titled "ANSWERED".
Also useful for customer back up tickets!
Don't say "Let's exercise lunch sometime" if yous don't mean it
This is mainly about your offline life: "false followup" is worthless.
Don't tell a new acquaintance you want to have coffee at some indefinite signal in the futurity if in your heart, you won't.
Some will argue "this is being polite". I'll clarify that politeness means not lying to someone if you have no intention of keeping a commitment. There are many other things yous tin say, and the easiest of all is maxim nothing at all and smile.
Economy of words frees your energy for acting on things that matter more.
Indulge in necessary terseness
It'south amend to be pithy than, well, something rude which almost rhymes.
Followup is largely near (conversation) menstruation, and tl;dr piece of work against being an effective communicator. Be colorful, be engaging, but don't be boring. Like music, accept a sense of dynamics, don't engage in loudness wars.
Instead of monolithic, gargantuan writings, split up ideas into sections or multiple installments, as we've seen from some of my fellow Lifehack contributors. That has the benefit of attracting ongoing readers and allowing them to digest your opinion. Again, it's about controlling your fourth dimension.
"Chop the slop!" -Torley
If the above wasn't what you expected nevertheless you've come abroad with some fresh recipes for followup, awesome indeed!
Unleash your experiences in the comments and let me know what you're thinking… and are going to followup on.
Source: https://www.lifehack.org/articles/communication/how-to-be-awesome-at-followup.html
0 Response to "How to Be Awesome at Followup"
Post a Comment