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by Christopher McCoy
Demir Bentley and his wife, Carey, run Lifehack Bootcamp, a productivity and lifestyle design company for high performing individuals who want to bring sanity back into their lives.
They are members of the Forbes coaching council and have been featured in Entrepreneur, Bloomberg, the Wall Street Journal, and the Huffington Post.
On the podcast, Demir discusses why you should rethink always-on communication.
When it comes to people who are constantly talking about growth hacks, but never seem to grow, Demir says they have “stupid feet.”
In other words, they’ve crammed all the best information into their heads, but their feet aren’t taking them anywhere. For an example of smart feet, think about when you’re going to work out, even though your brain is telling you it’s too hard or too time-consuming.
Your brain and your feet must be working in conjunction.
In the information age, everyone is constantly in communication with everyone else and instant replies are an expectation.
In business, being the quickest to respond can become a race to the bottom. Employees who work the longest hours and are the quickest responders are being considered the best employees, regardless of their output.
Business is being confused with productivity.
Avoiding your inbox is especially important when you’re away from work. On vacation, checking your email can add a level of stress and defeat the purpose of a vacation.
In fact, Demir has had talented people in the sales profession want to get out because of this “inbox tyranny.” The tedium of being connected at all times and responding to inboxes–email, Facebook, LinkedIn–becomes too much for them.
The first solution is to always have a communication policy. This is you telling the world–friends, family, boss–the rules for how to communicate with you to get the best output.
When it comes to Demir’s own communication policy, he has a “cut, bleeding, dying” policy. If you’re cut, Demir will get back to you within seven days.
If it’s more important and you’re bleeding, he wants you to put “urgent” in the subject line. At this point, you can expect an email within 48 hours.
If you’re dying, you can call Demir or send an email with “emergency” in the title.
By asking people to write “urgent” and “emergency” in the subject line, this acts as a natural deterrent for people abusing the communication policy.
In fact, Demir also suggests creating multiple inboxes to achieve maximum organization.
When it comes to Facebook Messenger, Demir sees it as a conversation starter. This is because he always immediately moves the conversation to email, or Asana once it extends beyond a greeting and becomes a request.
This way, the request can still fit into Demir’s communication policy that instills order to his inbox.
Some might initially have trouble asking the person on the other end to cut off the conversation and move it to email, but it’s better in the long run.
If you get a conversation to fit into your communication policy, your client will become educated immediately on the rules of engagement. Knowing the procedure of how you’ll respond gives the client peace of mind, rather than a feeling of limitation.
You can find out more about Demir at his company’s website, LifehackBootcamp.com, where they’re currently offering a free course for finding the perfect morning routine. He and his wife offer other coaching programs from $37 to $50,000.
Demir can also be found on the usual social media channels, such as Twitter and LinkedIn.
About the author