We all have those days, where you just have too much to do and not enough time to do it in. You have to follow up with people around getting certain things done, but you just don’t have the time right now, so you quickly pop a mail or a WhatsApp or a Skype message to “follow up”.
The next day you are still under pressure and you resort to just following up with a mail or a message again, and so it goes on until either you need to escalate because nothing has happened, or you totally miss the boat and you miss your deadlines or you don’t get the information required on time.
We are all guilty of this from time to time, and for some, this is business as usual; the thing is, it is not enough to just send and forget, you need to actively follow up and yes, following up does not constitute sending an email and following it up with another email.
Too many people are resorting to sending messages and emails only as a method of communication and have lost the ability to just pick up the phone or walk down the corridor and just ask someone for the information required. If you change the way you communicate you will get things done faster and more efficiently, and even better, you will probably not have to follow up so many times anymore either.
All of us are busy, and by just sending emails, and thinking that the other person is not as busy as you are, so they will respond quicker on mail is a monumental mistake. I mean if you are busy, the other person is likely to be busy as well and will only get to your email much later, then they get busy and forget about your email and so the vicious circle continues.
Rather get up, go and have a chat where you can (you can’t always do that, environments do differ in which case an email is an option) find out how your colleagues are doing and ask them for the information you require. You need to make an effort from your side as well, what seems to be a waste of time initially might save you days in the long run.
You can then follow up with written communication if you want to have a record or to feedback to a larger audience, but rather try to first have face to face communication before just sending an email to follow up.
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