I AM AT RISK OF COMMUNICATIONS BURNOUT.
This may sound odd from someone whose life work is all about communication and communicating. But I am exhausted from the Zoom and Teams meetings and keeping up with an ever-growing stream of email.
Here’s what I am trying to do to reduce the stress.
Focus and Prioritize.
Think about who you need to be talking with inside your organization and out as well as personally to strengthen and maintain important relationships.
Exercise restraint.
Think about what you are putting out there: whose mailboxes are you clogging up. Make every communication count.
Divide and Conquer.
You don’t have to reach out to everyone all at once all the time.
Be multi-modal.
Use different ways to communicate and vary them. Respect how your recipients want to hear from you. And you can just pick up the phone. It’s amazing how rich a phone conversation can be.
Intermittent Communications Fasting.
Just like people use intermittent fasting for weight loss, periodically get off the screen and all your devices. Those moments of silence will allow you to recharge so when you get back to it, you have more energy. That’s why I don’t post much on the weekends.
Now more than ever we need to be communicating. However, we must not wear ourselves out in the process. What are you doing for stress-free communication?
