PS&L Blog

Often when I show up on campus at the admissions office, ready to either train or to review programs, I am greeted by a pained look. It’s not that they are unhappy to see me. It’s more the look of someone who feels overwhelmed with things to do that day, and my arrival, while welcome, means that some tasks will have to be pushed off to later.

When I see this look, I know that these admissions and enrollment professionals spend much of their time reacting to the many challenges that come up daily. They arrive at their offices and are greeted by countless new emails that mysteriously arrived while they were sleeping. When they respond that often triggers a series of other emails and pretty soon they are spending hours going back and forth on emails. This naturally interrupts the flow of other items on their list of things to do that day. Eventually, because they are made to feel that they are playing catch up all day, they enter into a reactive mode, just trying to stay one step ahead of everything.

If this is happening to you, consider creating a communication bubble. Here is how it works.
• Designate 3 times a day that you check and answer emails and voicemails. I recommend when you first arrive at the office, 11:30 a.m. and 4 p.m.
• Allocate a specific amount of time for reading and responding: no more than 30 minutes.
• Inform everyone that you will only check your emails during those periods of time.

Now you might be thinking, “I can’t do that. I have to be accessible at all times.” This is where training yourself and others comes in handy. Just send out an email to all who might be concerned that you’ll be checking your email only during those times. You might get some initial friction, so tell who ever is complaining that this is an experiment in time management, and that you’ll revisit this in a couple weeks.

My guess is that you won’t be missed. My guess is that when you do get to the emails you’ll have plenty of time to participate and respond without any deadlines being missed. Furthermore, you’ll get a lot more accomplished since you won’t be interrupted during the rest of the day. In fact, you’ll discover that this extra focused time will enable you to be more proactive than reactive.