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You reply to email in a nanosecond. You answer your phone before the second ring. You jump up the instant someone enters your workspace (at home or the office).
Then you wonder why you don’t get anything that you had planned done. NEWSFLASH: You don't deliver insulin.
As a financial advisor, nobody will die or suffer great pain if you don't react now, this instant.
Have you ever stopped to think about what would happen if you didn’t reply to an email, phone call or visitor immediately? If not, take a second to ponder that. I’m sure you’ll eventually get to the truth that not much will happen – good or bad.
If there is no harm in not replying to an email now, then consider only processing your email periodically through the day (notice I didn’t say check your email…that’s for another article).
If there are no restrictions in letting your calls go to voicemail, set time aside to return calls each day so you are prepared based on their message when you call them back.
If those around you can wait until you are ready or able to visit with them, then close your door so visitors can't interrupt.
For the past 15 years as a productivity expert, I've noticed the common interruptions that my financial advisor clients do not manage well or at all until we focus on the possibility of making a few small changes.
Setting/resetting expectations
My client, Laurie, would respond to every email within a minute no matter what time of day or night. When she didn’t do that, the sender would resend or call her to see why she hadn’t responded yet. As a result, she had 169,526 emails in her inbox and was drowning because she’d reply quickly but do nothing after that.
She was out of control.
Laurie set expectations for anyone who emailed her that she would respond immediately, but we quickly reset those expectations. Without clear expectations, you will always lose time dropping what you’re doing to address someone else’s issues before your own.
In a perfect world, email, phone and visitor interruptions would disappear. The cool thing is you have the power to make that happen or perhaps minimize it even in this imperfect world.
Most of my clients have never even thought about their boundaries or the limits to what they will accept. So they accept anything that comes their way. They chalk it up to, “that’s just the way it is.”
Um, no it’s not.
That’s the way you’ve let it become.
When you think about what you want your day or week to look like, only then can things begin to change. When you know your limits, you can then reset your own expectations as well as the expectations of everyone around you.
What you accept you teach. Therefore, when you change what you are willing to accept, you can teach that as well. If you have always responded to email, phone or visitor interruptions in an instant, people have come to expect that from you. If you stop doing that, it may seem weird to the recipient at first, but they’ll adjust. They always do.
When my client, Kelly, started using her voicemail rather than answering her phone immediately, she explained in her greeting: “Great news! Our practice is growing so we are implementing a new model for how we do business so we can be as effective and productive as we can be. Please leave a detailed message and I’ll return my calls between 1pm and 3pm each day.” Who can argue with that?
When you mix boundaries, expectations and communication together, you take control of your time and life. It’s all possible if you make the decision to do so. Stop acting like you deliver insulin. Reset your boundaries and expectations and communicate them clearly to everyone, including clients. If this feels uncomfortable, reach out to me for a conversation. I can help.
Patty Kreamer, CPO® helps overwhelmed financial advisors take control of their brain clutter, calendar, to-do list, inbox, interruptions and anything blocking productivity. She is a productivity coach, speaker, Certified Professional Organizer®, author of four books and partner at Productivity Uncorked, LLC, a coaching firm that specializes in helping financial advisors increase their referrals and get more done in their day. To schedule a free 30-minute call with Patty, reach out to her at [email protected] or connect with her on LinkedIn.
Read more articles by Patty Kreamer
Advisor Perspectives welcomes guest contributions. The views presented here do not necessarily represent those of Advisor Perspectives.
