Protecting Time

Like most everybody else, I’m busy. A wife, five kids, small business, side hustles, and a strong desire to seek challenge and adventure means that my plate stays pretty damn full. I don’t have a lot of time to waste, and yet distractions surround me.

Phones pinging.

Emails buzzing.

Text messages beeping.

And…calls coming in.

But here’s the thing: 90% of those calls should be emails or text messages, not phone calls. And most emails and text messages are non-urgent.

So I fixed it - I set my phone up so that it does not ring.

Now, say another broker is going to make an offer on my listing, and he might want to know if I have any other offers on the table. I don’t need a 5-minute conversation to convey the answer when a quick text message would do the job. And I certainly don’t need to listen to a 2-minute voice message and have to return the call.

Text message = 10 seconds of my time for a 100% equivalent job.

So it’s faster, yes, but that’s not really why I fixed my phone. I did it to cut out the interruptions. The real problem isn’t 10 seconds versus two minutes; it’s having to restart work that I was deep into.

This is why not only does my phone not ring, it doesn’t make any sounds at all. There are zero alerts from my telephone, with one exception that I’ll get to in a minute.

Here’s the thing - on average, I’ll get a phone call, email, or text message about once per minute throughout the day. If I stop what I’m doing and answer each one, well, I’m going to spend the entire day doing nothing but answering questions. I’ll never get anything else done because I’ll never be able to get started, much less stay focused enough to finish.

So no alerts. Instead, I check my phone every 30-45 minutes throughout the day and return text messages or urgent calls then. Then I check my email - on a computer - about every two hours and return those in batches. I’m trying to get even better at that by reducing email down to twice per day, which is a rate at which I think 95% of people emailing me will be satisfied.

But what about emergencies? That's a good question, and my family, close friends, and clients know that if they need me right that second, all they have to do is call back-to-back, and my phone will ring. But you’d be amazed at how rarely emergencies happen when there’s one extra step involved.

Some say I’m hard to get hold of, but that’s not true at all. I might be hard to get hold of at a moment's notice, but I’m okay with that because my time is valuable, and I protect it. Starting and stopping what I’m doing all day long to be at everyone else's beck and call is a complete waste.

My kids, on the other hand, often act as if they are slaves to their phones. If someone calls or sends a message, they want to drop whatever they are doing and come running. They'll try to get up from the dinner table to answer an unknown number, but I teach them that the phone is for their convenience and enjoyment, not for them to be enslaved by.

With the rate of electronic communication we have these days, if you don’t master your phone, it will indeed enslave you. And taking control of your phone is the best way to take control of your time.