Effective Personal Communication Rules

Effective communication and processing of incoming information is what differentiates an excellent professional. It is important to have a strategy for managing your communication channels, and an effective strategy that helps you to focus on your work and not to be distracted by unnecessary information. At the same time, be aware of the most significant things happening in the company.

Importance Levels of Communications

On every level, you probably would recognize the following types of communication, sorted from the most important (which should take immediate reaction) to the least important (which can be postponed):

Critical (production bug, security breach, business critical issue, layoff, blocking project execution flaws, etc.).
Your current active discussions (ex. Slack chats or private messages).
News about new upcoming projects or discovery of your new opportunities (new tasks, new projects, new requirements, etc.).
Updates on the active projects, changes, other useful information.

⟵ Approximately here is the level of priority when you prefer doing your work/actions versus reading the messages.

Changes in the company (restructuring, new policies, new business directions, etc.).
Updates on the non-active projects.
Questions, requests for help from the coworkers.
Updates from other teams or departments.
Random information (professional info, suggestions, sharing interesting articles or tips, etc.).
Socializing (funny pictures, jokes, etc.).

Each of the levels of importance would be bombarding you via different communication channels: emails, slack, phone calls, meetings, etc. You should be able to recognize them when a message or request is coming.

Write It Down

Very few of us can remember everything from the incoming information or the requests we receive. So, usually we need some additional tools to help us to manage that effectively.

I recommend two:

Task List or Notes. It is a good idea to have a note file or task list where you can write down all the important information you receive. This way, you can keep track of what you need to do or to keep some useful pieces of information without the need to search for it in messages or conversations. I'd suggest to keep records there not longer than for a week or even a day if possible. You should learn how to use it in the most effective way, especially for you. You can write all your tasks or just scratch surfaces with key information, it's up to you.
Emails. "Ha-ha!" - you'd say to me. "Who even uses email anymore?" Well, I do—and my inbox is still one of my most valuable tools for staying organized at work. I set it up to receive notifications about tasks that need my attention: reviewing a PR, discussing ideas with a colleague, checking a Jira ticket, and so on. I treat my inbox like a task list, and aim for an empty inbox. Every email requires an action: respond, forward, delete, move it to your task manager, or complete the task it represents. If you haven't taken action, keep it unread. Once you've dealt with it, archive it.

So, you've received a message or request that needs some time to act - write it down in your notes. Act when time comes, remove it from notes. Make it as a rule.

How to Deal with Incoming Information

If you receive a message from 1-4 levels of importance - you should react immediately, dropping all the tasks you are doing right now. This will help others to be unblocked and will help you to be aware of the most important things.

If you receive a message from 5-9 levels - you should continue your current task until the "checkpoint" where you can stop. Then you can read the message and act if you can. If you can't - write it down and act when time comes.

Continue the iterations on every new message from 1-4 levels of importance and "checkpoints" in your work.

Conclusion

The most important thing is to have a strategy for managing your communication channels. Create it before you jumping into the mess. Continue reviewing your strategy every month and adjust it to your needs to perform better. And please enjoy how effective you can be 😊.