If your cellphone looks a bit like mine, you surely are tired of the many different apps that you had to download to communicate with your colleagues and supervisors, late-night notifications, and emails that either ruin the mood when you are relaxing right before going to bed or spoil the start of your day when you wake up to turn off your alarm and let’s not forget your calendar filled with different meetings and work events…
Having to watch all that made me wonder, where has my free time gone? I used to remember when my cellphone and computer were just for my personal use, and not just another means of communication between me and a business.
Luckily, I had the chance to discuss this issue with my colleagues to solve this situation. Turns out that I was not the only one complaining about it, so everyone was eager to start changing the way we communicate and set more boundaries between personal life and work.
Here’s how we did it.
How to Improve Digital Communication
The first thing to do was to establish our goals, which were:
- Establish the right communication channels and make good use of them.
- Broaden the difference between our personal life and work.
Accomplishing these goals allowed us to have a clear understanding of where to look for which information, and helped us to avoid confusion, misinformation, and repetitive information sent throughout different work channels.
In this article, I’ll guide you through the steps we followed to accomplish effective communication within our team. I highly recommend you take some notes because these are tips that you can apply to your own team or business.
Let’s begin:
1. Make use of the right communication channels
A business should have different ways of communicating information depending on the topic and urgency of the message. The use of these communication tools should be clear to all the members of your team.
Otherwise, you could start facing problems such as people avoiding video-call collaboration, members sharing the same messages and documents through many different channels, and the misuse of texting and calling personal numbers when there wasn’t really a need to do so.
These kinds of problems will easily lead to missed deadlines, emails ignored, reports of uncomfortable chat room conversations, and a lot of peer-based passive-aggressiveness.
Our recommendation to solve this situation is to create a set of rules of when to use each channel of communication and in what form, for example:
Instant Messenger
This is the main communication channel for your business. Apps like Slack, Google + Hangouts, etc.
- Should be used for time-sensitive, urgent messages and short and simple conversations.
- Should be answered as soon as possible.
- Rules: Use with fewer than 6 people (otherwise call). Set your availability. And avoid complicated questions or conversations that require visuals.
Video calls
- Should be used for meetings (or anything that could benefit from visual interaction)
- Should be scheduled in advance, with prior notification.
- Rules: Mute yourself when not talking, the host will clarify before the meeting if video functionality is required for participation, and the meeting will be recorded for those who miss it.
Emails
- Should be used to provide directional, important, and timely information.
- Emails should be answered in less than 24h, depending on priority.
- Rules: Use identifiers in the subject line for urgency and response expectations. Avoid when an immediate response is required.
Text
- Should be used only in urgent messages, on the occasion that you are unable to reach the person via other channels.
- Only text your coworkers at an appropriate time, and avoid early morning or late-night texts.
This is just an example, I recommend you edit it and set the guidelines for your own team. You should also schedule a meeting with the members of your team when deciding which norms are going to be established.
Make it a group brainstorming session where you can foster dialogue and hear your coworkers’ or employees’ opinions on the topic.
2. Maintain a good work/life balance
When working at home it’s hard to separate work from your personal life, your laptop, your cellphone, and even your house become more than just a place to live, it becomes your workspace, and that sometimes could end up in you being dragged up by sudden messages or maybe you would find yourself working late in the night just to kill the time.
Both situations could bring issues to your health, and also to your coworkers. In the case that you are working late in the night, you’ll most likely feel the need to contact your coworkers at late hours. Now, if these kinds of late-night messages weren’t informed beforehand, you will be breaking the boundaries we just set.
Also, this kind of behavior might end up affecting your health and productivity. Remember that it’s also important to relax and have time for yourself. Make some time for hobbies in your schedule, read that book you’ve been intending to finish for a while, or start learning more about a topic of your choosing, there’s plenty of stuff you can do outside of work.
This mindset will help you to avoid burning yourself out, and believe me, waking up feeling well-rested and happy is 100 times better than going to bed tired from work to only waking up to continue working.
A good rest will do wonders for your mental sanity, so remember to take care of yourself.
Let’s not forget that setting boundaries does not apply only to your coworkers, but it’s also a commitment you make to yourself.
In conclusion
Setting boundaries both at work and in your personal life will help you improve your communication with your colleagues and housemates. Here’s how you do it
At work, it’s important that everyone is on the same page about when to communicate what, and where. And at home, remember to communicate to your roommates, family members, or partner which hours of the day require minimal noise and distractions.
Communication is key. Your friends, family, and co-workers won’t know your boundaries unless you’re communicating with them.
