In speaking with most clients, I hear over and over again “we need to focus on communication”. In the age of Snapchat, Twitter and Slack, phone conversations and face to face communication have gone to the wayside. It isn’t uncommon to email the person sitting in the cube next to you, and to walk by someone and never get a glimpse of their face. It’s hard to imagine a time when cell phones weren’t around and when people weren’t available at the drop of a hat. While we all have phones, reports like this one prove that people aren’t using them to make phone calls but rather to text, to email, and to utilize additional apps. While there are many great uses for cell phones and their capabilities to do everything OTHER than call, we have pushed out personal interaction and gone for convenience, for right here, right now, check the box and done. It’s unrealistic to think we can live without cell phones, however I’d like to propose a challenge to remind us of their most basic function, and to improve our communication abilities with phone calls that utilize both words and tone to elicit our message rather than words alone. Better yet, call someone to meet in person (socially distanced of course) and add in body language for a real life, full blown communication extravaganza!
The Challenge
I challenge you to turn off all your cell phone apps for one week, including text messaging. While the challenge is for communication reasons, I think you will find your happiness levels increase and find the time management problem you are struggling with to become a lot less of an issue. With the nice weather starting here in New England we could all use a few extra hours outside!
Prior to this challenge you may need to make a few steps:
1. Let people know how they can connect with you (phone calls only please!) and when you will be available.
2. Replace extracurricular cell phone time with an hobbies and/or an opportunity to learn something.
**Note: As most people use their cell phones as an alarm clock, it’s OK to bring it up to your room when you go to bed. We all still need to get to work on time.**
We would love to know who chooses to accept this challenge, and how it went! Please comment below, reach out to us on any of our social media channels, or better yet, give us a call!
