I’m not rude, I’m not mad, I’m not disorganized — I’m just very, very busy
Replying to all e-mail messages and private messages from online networks within 24-48 hours is a nice ideal. Actually, replying to all of them eventually is a nice ideal. But it’s simply not always possible.
Unfortunately, when people don’t get a response, sometimes they feel that:
a) they’re being personally slighted or the recipient is mad at them
b) that the recipient is simply being rude
c) that the recipient poorly organized
None of the above are true for me, as I’m sure is the case for many other people. If I don’t reply, I’m not rude, mad at you, or disorganized — I’m just very, very busy.
This is a general issue — I’m just using myself as an example. For the month of August, for example, I’m booked 18 full days at clients.
That means my typical day consists of:
- 10 hours at the client (including travel time & lunch)
- 1 hour prep for the next day at the client
- 4 hours personal time (meals, hygiene, exercise, family, relaxation/entertainment)
- 1-2 hours on my About.com work (average)
- In the remaining 7-8 hours a day, I have to work on marketing The Virtual Handshake, handle my e-mail and online communities, and sleep.
That gives me around 1-2 hours a day to handle all my correspondence and online communities. When I got home tonight, I had 254 messages, of which 108 are NOT bulk mail. I can cut that down to less than 100 in just a couple of minutes, but even that, at an average of 1-2 minutes per message, is more than I have time to handle right now.
Not everyone is this busy with their work, but a lot of people are. What I see all too often in online networking communities is a lack of empathy/respect for that fact. It’s not entirely a case of “haves” vs. “have-nots” — there are a lot of successful people with plenty of time on their hands, too.
So, if you have time on your hands, enjoy it. Be glad you do. But please be respectful of the time of those who don’t, and don’t take it personally or hold it against them when they don’t have time for you. It’s no reflection on you, or even on your relationship with them. Sometimes people are just really, really busy. I am!
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Perhaps there’s a way for you to decrease the amount of work you’re doing? Maybe some of it can be assigned to others? Seems like you’re too busy, and thus are serving as a bottleneck.
Just a thought, in any event. Best of luck in managing the deluge!
Comment by Simit Patel — 8/5/2005 @ 10:05
ok
congrats on the new book and thanks for putting my name in the credits section.
Comment by Billy McDermott — 8/5/2005 @ 20:41
Nice in principle, Simit, but…
1. My clients hire me to be on-site, not someone I delegate to. “Maybe someday.”
2. About.com hired me — my words, my voice, my presence on my discussion forums, etc. I do outsource some of that — I use guest articles all the time and have someone writing biographies of famous entrepreneurs for me. I’m already outsourcing all I can there.
3. There are already are several other people working on the marketing of The Virtual Handshake. What’s on my plate is the small part that I have to do myself.
4. I haven’t figured out how to outsource eating, sleeping, bathing, exercising or family time yet. Not that I would want to…
Comment by Scott Allen — 8/5/2005 @ 22:09
Aloha Scott,
Would you believe I had a friend who tried to outsource #4?
And, if that doesn’t have you laughing, would you believe someone actually submitted a proposal to get it done for him?
The closest I came to outsource the eating, was when I used to pay my sister when I was 5 to finish my plate so we could leave the table and go play. Since then, I enjoy my dining choices much better AND need the fuel for energy to pull those all-nighters.
Hang in there Scott Allen – I emphatize with your plight.
Comment by Coach Deb — 8/15/2005 @ 19:52
I suggested to my wife that she fix my breakfast while I go exercise, run my bath while I eat, do the dishes while I take my bath, and come get some “quality time” with me while I get dressed, but that didn’t go over very well.
(kidding!)
I’ve also thought about “doubling up” on the activities — some family exercise time seems like a good idea, but eating in the bath doesn’t. I’m still trying to figure out how I can exercise in my sleep — now THAT would be a breakthrough!
Comment by Scott Allen — 8/15/2005 @ 20:49
hey scott, i dropped by here as you suggested on the Ryze thread of B2B. Very well said. Mine, though, has not been a case of being very busy lately. Just in a rut. I really should’ve handled that family emergency in a better way that doesn’t affect my professional life. Thank you for directing me to this article.
Best,
Sunny
Comment by sunny — 8/9/2006 @ 10:17
[...] I’ve written before about the challenges of being incredibly busy. I will readily admit to being chronically — perhaps even pathologically — over-committed. [...]
Pingback by The Virtual Handshake Blog | » Dr. Mark Goulston on Over-commitment — 8/8/2007 @ 12:15
Thank you for sending me the link to this, Scott. I didn’t “get it” before but BOY do I get it now. I’m not complaining and I’m sure you’re not either. It’s a great blessing to be so busy with client work and interest in what we do. But, it’s hard when others may not be understanding how busy we are. (I’ve been guilty of this in the past but now, well, like I said, I GET IT.)
Thus, I’ll be sending this piece to a number of people in my life who will not understand and to everyone in my network who’ll read it because it’s an important message. I hope others will cut those of us who are generally very nice people but BURIED in work and emails, some slack. Thanks for your timely post.
Comment by Dahna Chandler — 10/9/2008 @ 18:17