Time Management - Marc Mancini

The Art of Anticipating 107
Setback 5: Being stuck in an automatic answering loop.
Remember the Minotaur of Greek legend and the maze in
which he lived? It took Theseus to navigate it and destroy the
monster. You shouldn’t have to be Theseus to get through a
maze of such convoluted directions as “For accounts receivable,
press one; for sales, press two ....” But these days, you
practically have to be.
Theoretically, automated answering systems provide efficient
fulfillment of your needs. But too many of these “wonders”
waste your time as you navigate their options, only to find, in
the end, that no option meets your requirements and that no
human being can be accessed to answer your specific questions.
These phone loops create quite a problem.
If it’s a number and a person you’re calling for the first time,
there’s almost no way to get past this loop. Just work your way
through the system. However, if it’s a number you call frequently,
do the following:
• Note the “press 1, press 2,” etc., options on an index card,
for example. The next time you get the answering system,
you can press the button you want before the message
states all the options. If the system is extensively branched,
with each option leading to another set of options, this
strategy will save you considerable time. One potential
problem: a few especially stubborn systems will not let you
hit a number until the recorded statement finishes.
• If you know a person’s telephone extension, note it somewhere.
(If your phone has an LCD and you have the person’s
phone number on auto-dial, you may want add the
extension to the end of the main phone number, so you
can see it on the display.) That way you won’t have to
keep going into the system’s name directory.
Setback 6: Playing “phone tag.” Phone tag is a fiendish problem.
One study concluded that people spend two years of their
lives returning calls. The average person succeeds in getting
through to the person he or she wants only 17% of the time.