Ever feel exhausted at the end of the day and wonder why? It might be because you’ve had somewhere between 250 and 400 conversations today. And in today’s world, these conversations aren’t just happening face-to-face or over the phone.
We’re constantly switching between channels. Think about it: you’re in a Zoom meeting, then you quickly respond to a Slack message, and oh, there’s an email notification. Each of these channels demands different forms of communication. And then you go home and you switch conversation gears again. These micro-switches fragment our attention, and before we know it, we’re juggling multiple conversations across different platforms, all at the same time. It's like a game of conversation whack-a-mole!
The truth is, every conversation adds to our cognitive load. Each one requires focus, attention, and processing power, and the more conversations we have, the more our brain works overtime.
This constant context-switching is mentally draining. Studies show that it takes about 23 minutes to fully refocus after an interruption. Now, multiply that by the number of channels and conversations you’re managing, and you can see how quickly the brain gets overloaded. No wonder we have conversation fatigue by the end of the day. I wonder what impact that is having on the effectiveness of the engagement that you are having with your colleagues or customers too?
So, how can we manage this?
The obvious advice is to reduce unnecessary channel-hopping and having conversations simultaneously across platforms. But, of course, you know that already and we live in the real world where sometimes circumstances dictate we just have to deal with conversations as and however they arise. We get it.
But here's a quick tip is to simply be more aware of the quality of the conversations we are having and to put our best effort into making each one as effective as possible. Try being more deliberate about every conversation and you’ll be surprised how quickly you’ll see positive effects.
The quality of our conversations can have a huge impact on how we engage with others and how quickly we can execute.
At The Conversation Lab, we’re here to help you lighten that conversation cognitive load, one conversation at a time.
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