Good morning! Today I’ve been thinking about time, attention, and effective communication.

The moment you landed on this email you were likely thinking “Do I have time for this?” It’s what I do when I start combing through my emails early in the day. I am fairly quick to archive anything that isn’t going to help me right away, I may flag (or star, in Gmail) something I will want to dig into later.

Time is a precious resource, probably the most valuable and scarce of them all. Attention is at an all-time low, with so many different things competing for ours, especially on our phones. Johann Hari wrote a really thoughtful article about this recently.

Cutting through the noise and being mindful of each other’s time requires effective communication. It’s a skill that is under-appreciated and probably is worth way more than what some people earn degrees for. Your ability to communicate effectively has such a tremendous impact on your life. How strong your relationships are, with your partner, your friends, and your family. How you’re able to form strong networks that can help with your career. How you can be persuasive and competent at your job, and often simply to get things done efficiently.

Assuming the knowledge you have is the same knowledge others have is one of the biggest mistakes we make when trying to communicate effectively. We tend to under-communicate details that are essential because we already are well aware of them but others may not be. These are not always just facts but having some empathy for the people we’re trying to reach by first understanding a bit more about the person. We all have different life experiences, we have our strengths and weaknesses, our likes and dislikes and these traits all have some impact on how we accept or share information. What’s important to me may not be important to others. Knowing your audience is a very complicated thing.

In that respect, what I’ve found is that the key to effective communication is actually listening. Spend more time trying to gather information from who you’re trying to reach first. I’m usually the quiet one in the meeting for the first half, trying to absorb what the actual goals are and how each participant plays a role in trying to achieve them. Understanding exactly how I fit into that overall picture and what I can communicate back that is most effective towards reaching that goal. What can I offer that’s of value and not more noise?

And once again, I am mindful of how precious your time is. So, I’ll end it here. I appreciate so much that you’ve allowed me to take up a few minutes of your day. If you’d like to share some of your experiences trying to communicate effectively, you can reach me at antderosa@gmail.com or on Twitter at @anthony