Do you answer IM questions in order?
Sometimes people fire a few questions at you and the tendency is to answer in all kinds of ways that can make our signal to noise ratio poor.
Tips when answering IMs:
- Answer each question in order
- Repeat the keywords of each question
- Avoid grouping your messages together as per the rule
- Gary: Welcome back from your holiday. How many items in your inbox? Can you give me the link for better IM rules? When is your next client work?
- Dave: Next Monday Will work for Northwind. I have 85 items and the link is https://ssw.com.au/rules/rules-to-better-im
❌ Figure: Bad example - We must try to find the answers one by one
- Gary: Welcome back from your holiday. How many items in your inbox? Can you give me the link for better IM rules? When is your next client work?
- Dave:
- I have 85 items in my inbox
- Here is the link: https://ssw.com.au/rules/rules-to-better-im
- I start working for Northwind next Monday
😐 Figure: OK example - Each question answered in order
- Gary: Welcome back from your holiday. How many items in your inbox? Can you give me the link for better IM rules? When is your next client work?
- Dave: I have 85 items in my inbox
- Dave: Here is the link: https://ssw.com.au/rules/rules-to-better-im
- Dave: I start working for Northwind next Monday.
✅ Figure: Good example - Questions answered separately so that they can be responded to individually