I’m Going To Try Something New…

I’ve been out of London for the last few days dealing with a family emergency and although I’m not the one who’s a hospital patient, I’m spending a lot of time in a hospital and that’s a challenge for working. Many of you will have had a similar experience I’m sure.

I’m still 100 miles away from the office, there’s no phone signal and nowhere to sit at a table with my laptop and the nurses look at me sharply when I balance it on the bed; bad visitor! 

All of which makes keeping on top of emails and communicating with my team and contacts rather challenging (and it’s going to be a little while yet). Thank goodness for WhatsApp, which I can access and which I don’t mind colleagues using (I’m usually ferocious about it being only for personal life). When it comes to PR conversations, I’m going to try something new – well, in fact, it’s a habit I’ve meant to create and stick to for ages…

I will set aside 10 minutes every hour to focus solely on my inbox and to either answer or discard what’s arrived. You’re all owed a timely reply if it’s an invitation or a chase on something we’re collaborating on, and I need not to feel overwhelmed.

If I can make it work this time I think it’s a good long-term structure – at the very worst if you haven’t heard back from me after 24 hours it might be safe to assume I’m not going to; at best things will move faster with ideas and projects. 

And as a side note, it will be interesting if people actually read the out-of-office message I am setting up. I think most of us see OOO and take it as complete absence but mine’s a ‘I’m working differently at the moment’ narrative. 

See you all soon, I hope!