Are You Too Accessible?

We live in a 24-7 society. We’re conditioned to think that we need to be “on call” day in and day out.

Technology is great, but business owners who allow instant/constant accessibility may be making a HUGE mistake.

Is your Blackberry your “Crackberry?”

Let’s face it, these hand-helds have an addictive quality! This is a problem when you are at the beck and call of everyone, and you are constantly interrupted. You cannot focus on the big picture.

Impossible.

Multitasking is definitely overrated. You think that you are accomplishing a lot, but the truth is that your attention is so fragmented that you set yourself up for headaches. The quality of your work suffers and you wind up making mistakes that you have to fix later. Bottom line? You waste precious time “re-doing” what you have already done.

Here’s what you can do today:

  • Limit who accesses your cell number – set aside a block of time to return calls.
  • Set up VM and EM within 48 hours – again, set up a time to return emails in batches.
  • Hire your own gatekeepers/assistant who can handle basic routine inquiries.
  • Schedule regular team meetings vs. endless, round-the-clock emailing/follow-ups with assistants.
  • If you are Tweeting – look into how you can leverage this tool (e.g., TweetLater and interfacing your blog posts, Facebook, and Linked In pages.