Recently I made a post where I talked about how “e-mail” can kill your company and you; at the end of it, I mention “…but Gtalk is vital for virtual companies…”

Right after I made that statement and hit “Publish” I got to thinking about the truthfulness of what I just said. For some reason it felt “stupid” - if checking my email frequently is a problem, then how can CONSTANTLY chatting on Gtalk be any better?

The next day I evaluated my day and realized something that down right PISSED me off. I was WASTING hours just “chit-chatting” away on Gtalk and not getting anything done - all useless ramble. I was shocked, appalled and wanted to slap myself.

I am going on record today CORRECTING my prior evaluation of Gtalk and all other instant messaging programs.

Yes, they ARE vital for virtual companies - but not if you also have your friends on that account and if you “chit chat” with those who you work with.

Here’s How I’m Changing Things Moving Forward…

Everyone that I typically talk to now knows that to reach me, they need to either e-mail me with URGENT in the subject line or CALL me and ask me to get on Gtalk.

Will I still use instant messaging to communicate with my team? Yes, of course. But, I’m not going to be 100% reachable all the time - they can easily ask me to get on and I will, but then log right off afterwards.

I’ll also get on instant messaging when I am taking a break.

I am officially on record, sorry for giving you the bad advice on the prior post.

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Tags: e-mail, gtalk, productivity

This entry was posted on Thursday, April 10th, 2008 at 3:56 pm and is filed under Virtual Team. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.