I frequently hear my clients and students complaining about being constantly interrupted by phone calls, Slack and Teams messages, WhatsApp, and other messenger apps, as well as email. Is it any wonder why people find they cannot complete their work each day?

When you have so many open communication channels, of course, you will be interrupted, and the worst part is that you cannot blame anyone for this state of affairs. You signed up for all these services.

I learned this lesson the hard way around four years ago. Like most people, I had email, Slack, Google Hangouts (as it was called then), Kakao Talk (a Korean version of WhatsApp), WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, iMessage, Twitter, and many more. As a result, it was almost impossible to stay on top of all my messages.

In the end, I did a purge. The first messaging apps to go were the social media ones. Facebook Messenger and Twitter were the worst culprits, so I deleted those apps. The next one was WhatsApp, as this was mainly spam messages.

Ultimately, I left myself with email, iMessage and Kakao Talk.

I did not delete my accounts on the other services; instead, I would use the website to log in if I needed to access my messages on other services. That way, there were no alerts, notifications, or anything else telling me I had messages. I checked these channels when I had time.

I learned with this exercise that people will use whatever channel you use. If you are not on WhatsApp, people cannot interrupt you. You can direct close friends and colleagues to your preferred form of communication.

For example, for work, my preferred form of communication is email. I have an effective email management system that allows me to get on with my work without being distracted. I clear my inbox twice a day, and I reply to my messages once a day (5 pm to 6 pm). As a result, anyone who emails me regularly will quickly pick up my routines and be confident they will get a reply within 24 hours.

Now, I can hear many of you making excuses already. Excuses such as; “my company use Teams messages; I have to have it.”

Sure, you may need Teams for your company messages, but do you have to have it on your phone? Unless your company provides you with a company phone, there is no obligation for you to have Teams on your phone.

You can also turn on do not disturb when you need to do a focused work session. Very little is going to happen in an hour that cannot be dealt with when you finish your focused work session.

If you want to get on with your work undisturbed, you need to make some hard choices. What is more important? Knowing what everyone else is doing or getting on with your work? The reality is you can’t have both.

A few months ago, I began a collaborative project with a company, and their internal communication system is Basecamp 3. When we started the collaboration, they asked me to sign up for Basecamp, which I did. Within the first 24 hours, I got twenty+ emails from Basecamp informing me of the activity. It was irritating and annoying.

To prevent this, I went into my email and created a rule that moved all these Basecamp messages to a separate folder and bypassed my inbox. This simple action meant I completely controlled when I saw my basecamp messages.

Basecamp has apps for iPhone and iPad in addition to their web-based system. I did not download those apps. All I need is to periodically check my Basecamp folder to see if there is anything relevant to me.

The most productive people I know are incredibly disciplined about what they allow into their space. They limit their communication channels to funnel everything to as few places as possible. This means you have fewer places to look for messages, reducing the chances of missing anything critical.

The trick is to tell people how to best contact you. I narrowed my communications by telling people that email is the best way to get in touch with me. I communicate this through my social media and all emails I send. It hasn’t been difficult to change how people communicate with me; as they desire to contact me, they are funnelled towards a channel I use to contact me.

Hierarchy of communication

We then come to the hierarchy of communication. By this, I mean how long it will be before I reply, on average, to the various message channels.

Here’s mine.

Email — within 24 hours

iMessage / Kakao Talk — within one hour

Phone calls — immediate / within 30 minutes

Once again, this comes down to how you communicate your message. If you do not tell people your communication style, they will expect instant replies to their messaging format, leaving you stressed. Instead, take the initiative. For your new customers, tell them how best to communicate with you and how long they can expect to wait for a response.

Tell your colleagues and bosses. What’s the worst that can happen? They can say no. But if you explain that by following these simple rules, your productivity will improve dramatically, you should not have too many difficulties changing things.

The onus is on you to take control. Find excuses if it pleases you, but don’t expect anything to change if that’s your course. People are far more understanding than you imagine. When you have those conversations about how best to communicate with you, you will likely find the people you work with and interact with will respect your wishes.

And if not, perhaps it’s time to consider whether you want to remain working in such an environment.

As the late Jim Rohn said, “if you want things to change, you have to change”. Wishing things will change is a fool’s wish.

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