From the course: Time Management Tips

How to respond to quick questions

From the course: Time Management Tips

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How to respond to quick questions

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- Excuse me, I've got just a quick question. How often do you hear that phrase throughout your day? I call this the dreaded double-Q, the quick question is one of the greatest offenders when it comes to time management in the workplace, it chops your day to pieces to constantly respond to these little questions. The problem is many people feel guilty when they don't respond to these quick questions because they want to be helpful and being helpful to your coworkers is a good thing. So how is the best, most productive way to respond to these quick questions? I'm going to give you a four-step process. The first question, "Can this wait "until our one-to-one meeting?" Now if you're not familiar with the concept of a one-to-one meeting I recommend you check out my course on this subject in the library, but the basic idea is you should have a regularly scheduled time to discuss these quick questions. Instead of answering them constantly throughout the day you want to queue them up and then bring them to the one-to-one meeting where you ask and answer these with each other. The second question, "Is this better handled via email?" Now some questions that people ask you don't involve a lot of back and forth, there's no conversation, it's just quick info, here's one question I have and here is the one answer. So if you have questions like that, they're much better handled via email, not face-to-face or phone conversation. Question three, "Is this better handled "in a separate meeting?" Now occasionally you're going to bring a question to a coworker or them to you that is complex, it's going to involve a lot of conversation, perhaps a half an hour or more. In a situation like that you do not want to discuss these during the one-to-one meeting or ad hoc in the middle of the day, you want to schedule a focused time to have a conversation about this more complex issue. And then number four, if the answer to all the previous questions was no, then you ask, "Alright, what is the question?" You'll respond now because since they answered all the previous questions as no, their question is truly urgent and you should stop whatever you're doing and respond to it. When you ask these four questions consistently you'll begin to recondition yourself and the other person to think more productively about these quick questions. You'll learn to, in most cases, stage them and wait until the meeting happens. It may not happen immediately but consistently asking these questions will start to create a new pattern of how you communicate in the workplace, and when you can do this you'll both protect your time and everyone else's.

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