Rules to Better IM - 30 Rules

When somebody sends you an IM message, they are interrupting you.

When somebody sends you an email, they are not interrupting you - assuming you keep your notifications off as per Do you minimize your Outlook Distractions? You have made the decision to read your emails, so email is in actual fact far more polite than IM which can be a nuisance.

IM is only to be used if they would like you to do something NOW.

Please don't say just 'Hello' in chat. It's as if you called someone on the phone and said "Hi!" and then put them on hold!

When you do that, you're simply making the other person wait for you to phrase your question, which generates low productivity.

Now that you've avoided just saying hello, if you're calling them, just be sure to give them a warning

No Hello - Say Goodbye to Time Wasting with this Simple Productivity Trick | SSW Rules (6 min)

The same goes for:

Instead of doing this, just ask the question!

More info on nohello.net.

When you realize the communication is not simple and there it is going to take much back and forth IMs, say "Can I call?" and continue the conversation through voice.

Communication using voice is much faster than typing a message and it can clear misunderstandings. Encourage people to switch to voice if possible.

Example:

Then follow Do you send "As Per Our Conversation" emails?

It can be very jarring when somebody is called out of the blue and they are not expecting it. They might be deep in a task or talking to a client and by calling them their focus is getting disrupted.

Before calling someone, be sure not to just say 'hello'.

A good way to initiate a call is to warm them up by giving a warning (e.g. “Calling you in 1 min to talk about the Northwind production site being down 💀.”).

✅ The benefits of a warm call

• Prioritization - The other person can see what the call is about and can determine if it is a priority. For example, if you mention that you want to talk about an email from several years ago, they might think it isn't that important. Conversely, if you mention the production server is down, they will almost definitely answer you!
• Consideration - It gives the other person the time to prepare. They might be busy or in another call
• Easier Responses - It puts you into their chat history, so even if they decline the call, they can easily write back to you to explain why
• Availability - Giving someone even a 1 minute warning is a good idea even if you see their Teams Status is on green ‘available’. Remember it is not easy to always change their status to ‘busy’ - they could be on a mobile phone, on a WhatsApp call, in a physical meeting, etc

If the conversation has history, like a PBI/Issue or email, then it's important to include the context.

Tip: For the example above, PBIs often have long URLs. Include a line break for better readability.

For cross approvals, pinging the approvers with their priority order number shows how many you have attempted to contact before them, and how many are after if they can not take the call.

Using Outlook | Share to Teams

Outlook can do some of the heavy lifting for you! You can directly paste an email into a teams message with one click.

What if your call is declined/not answered?

When a call is declined, it is important to follow up in order to ensure the task remains a priority and does not get forgotten. You should follow up twice after the first call.

Tip: The follow-up effectively rule will help you remember to call.

❌ Blocked - What if you are blocked and can't reach the person for a whole day?

If you couldn't get hold of the person, and a decision needs to be made (aka blocked), you should write your recommendation, get a cross-approval and inform them.

Always do a quick investigation before asking for help. When asking a question using IM, always start your conversation with "I have googled this and no luck".

IM can interrupt a person when they are busy, so make sure that you are well prepared and have tried to find the solution another way first. AI tools like ChatGPT are another great option for getting unblocked before bothering someone.

It's good practice to open your conversation with what investigation you have done. It will save the other person repeating work unnecessarily and is also a good prompt for you to do the initial investigation.

Do you sometimes spend time answering unnecessarily complicated questions? This can be a pain and cost valuable time. Or, when you're asking someone a question about something that is blocking you, do you ever get frustrated when the person reads your message but doesn't reply? This can lead to a series of reminders and time spent chasing them up.

Asking easy questions saves time for both the person asking and the person answering, and gets to the decision as quick as possible.

Making questions that are easy to respond to

If you need an answer quickly, you should aim to make as easy as possible for the other person to respond. Where possible, avoid open ended questions as they take more time and effort to reply to. The easier it is for the other person to respond, the quicker and more effective your communication will be. Therefore, you should always aim for the simplest way you can phrase the question without losing the important points.

Use "yes or no"

This type of question is the easiest to answer. The clearest way to phrase it is with a 'y or n' at the end of your question.

Ask for reactions for multiple options

For a simple question with multiple options, list the options and ask them to "thumbs up 👍" their preferred one. That makes it as simple as possible to respond so you can even catch people who are extremely busy!

Use polls for questions to a group

When you anticipate many replies/votes to your question (e.g. in a group chat), use polls. In Microsoft Teams, use the 'Voting Table' Loop component. Polls help to reduce noise and easily analyze responses.

Avoid a call

A good technique is to say "Can you answer the above... if not, I will give you a call in 15 mins".

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When you can't make it simple and need a paper trail

If it is important to have a record of a discussion, the best thing to do is call or have an in-person discussion. Once you have the answer, send an as per our conversation email to make sure both parties are clear on the result.

When messaging someone, it's often tempting to send a big block of text. This can make your thoughts difficult to respond to, especially if there are unrelated subjects. Instead, you should split your thoughts into several individual messages, separated by subject.

Why separate messages?

Breaking messages ensures that each segment is clear and distinct, avoiding confusion and promoting a better understanding of individual points. It encourages recipients to respond or interact to specific points or questions, fostering more focused and efficient communication.

Sending an unnecessary Instant Message is a distraction to the person you sent it to. As the 5 word rule on emails, if your message is less than 5 words, e.g. "Great work!" or "Thanks!", it's probably not required.

Exceptions to this rule are when acknowledgement of the IM is required. We use IM in the office to notify that "John from F1 is on line 1." If the respondent doesn't say "OK - checking now" promptly we have to get up and go find them so John isn't left hanging on the line.

Another way to give an acknowledgement of understanding is to just "like" the message.

Receiving Teams messages after work hours can be stressful, disrupting personal time and mental well-being. Microsoft Teams' Quiet Hours feature helps you create boundaries by silencing notifications during non-work hours. By proactively setting Quiet Hours, you can reduce interruptions, maintain focus during work, and preserve your personal time for relaxation or family.

Why use Quiet Hours?

1. Reduce Stress: Continuous notifications can lead to burnout and stress
2. Maintain Work-Life Balance: Ensuring that work stays within its designated hours is crucial for personal well-being
3. Minimize Unnecessary Interruptions: For non-urgent communications, email is often less intrusive than instant messages. Do you send emails for tasks only?

How to Enable Quiet Hours

1. Open the Teams app on your mobile device and tap on your profile picture in the top left corner
2. Navigate to Notifications | Under Blocked notifications | During quiet hours
3. Set your preferred Quiet Hours (specific hours) and Quiet Days (specific days)
4. To sync quiet hours across all mobile devices, turn on the Set on Teams and Outlook toggle

Tips for Effective Use

• Set Clear Expectations: Inform your team about your Quiet Hours to align communication strategies

• Encourage Alternatives:

  • Use emails for non-urgent matters
  • Escalate urgent issues through other means if necessary

Related Considerations

• For urgent or emergency communications, follow the principle of using calls or alternative means
• Understand the broader implications of after-hours messaging and employee rights under regulations like the Right to Disconnect

By using Quiet Hours in Microsoft Teams, you can enjoy better focus at work, a healthier personal life, and a more effective communication strategy within your team.

Use IM to chase up that important email. You can make it easy for everyone (or at least give them the context of your questions) by pasting the email subject.

Tip: Use text formatting

To make your messages more visually appealing, you can use "> {{ MESSAGE }}" in Microsoft Teams chats to highlight your message as a quote. This works particularly well when you want to refer to an email subject, i.e:

Always start your answer to a question with ‘Yes’ or ‘No’ first, then follow that with your opinion and more details.

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

If you noticed the message you typed in Microsoft Teams has a mistake, make sure you edit it (or delete it if sent in error) so the recipient doesn't see the mistake.

According to Sydney Morning Herald's "Flame emails missing the mark":

"The senders of email messages expected their partners to correctly interpret their tone nearly 80% of the time, but in fact, they only scored just over 50%... Those attempting to interpret the message believed they had scored 90% accuracy".

Because there is no "tone of voice" in an email, sarcasm can easily be misinterpreted by the receiver. You can use a smiley face or emoji to soften it up a bit.

When updating an existing message in IM chats, others might see an indication of it, but won't get a notification, so it's important to inform them about your message changes.

This simple practice promotes transparency, avoids confusion, and ensures everyone has the most current information. By keeping everyone in the loop, you foster clearer communication and enhance collaboration within the team.

When deciding whether to send a chat message, call, or organize a meeting in Microsoft Teams, or send an email, there are a few factors to consider:

• Urgency and importance - If the matter is urgent or time-sensitive, it may be best to initiate a call, allowing faster response times than email. If you can’t get hold of them, send a chat message with the prefix “❌ Blocked” to ensure the other person knows that you can’t proceed without them. On the other hand, if the matter is not urgent, sending an email may be sufficient
• Complexity - If the issue or topic is complex and requires a more in-depth discussion or collaboration, it may be better to call or organize a meeting in Teams rather than relying on chat or email
• Number of people involved - If there are multiple people involved, it may be better to organize a meeting, especially if a group discussion or decision-making process is necessary. Chat and email can be suitable for one-on-one discussions or when the number of people involved is small
• Availability and accessibility - If you need to communicate with someone who is not currently available in Teams, you may need to send an email instead
• Task - If there is a task that you need to be able to track and follow up, always send an email, since the transient nature of chats and calls make tasks easily forgotten

In general, IM is designed for real-time collaboration and communication, while email is better suited for asynchronous communication. Therefore, if you need to discuss something quickly or want to work collaboratively on a project, using Teams is more suitable. If you need to send a formal or official message, or want to provide detailed information that can be referenced later, an email may be more appropriate.

First of all, understand that IM is distracting so use it judiciously. However, IM is great when an email is unclear or you have an additional question about the email that is stopping you from sending a 'done'. IM is great for reminding people and is excellent to push the important things... especially for people who ignore emails!

The golden rule is do not send a task on Teams (IM)!

Dealing with external clients 

During the course of an IM chat with a client or manager, an action or a piece of work may be required. It's highly important that such chats are copied from the chat and pasted into an email.

For example:

When you copy and paste a IM conversation into an email remember the following:

1. Who are you sending the email to? Is there any private information that should not be shared with the group?
2. Have you asked for permission to copy the IM conversation into an email? The other party may not want to share it in an email
3. Does the conversation add value to the email or can it be left out?
4. If you decide to copy the conversation then make sure you edit it so it is easy to read and relevant

Make it readable by snipping out just the important information and Cc relevant parties. (See rule on Snipping for more information).

Dealing internally

If you get an internal IM that should be an email, don't simply convert it into in an email as above - be a standard watchdog and let the other person know that they should send emails instead of instant messages:

If you intend to talk about someone in your chat, it's best to add that person to a group chat.

This approach is useful before starting a Teams call and you can simply say "I'll call you in 5 mins" in your group chat to let everyone in the group know that you need to chat with them.

Note that you shouldn't make the call if all of the participants have Teams status "In a call" or their status message suggests they shouldn't be disturbed.

Consistency is key in communication. Always reply to tasks or questions in the same medium they were sent. It's all about showing courtesy, avoiding confusion, and keeping things running smoothly.

When someone messages you on a specific platform, it's because they chose that medium for a reason. Keeping the conversation in one place makes it easier to refer back to previous messages and stay on the same page. It's a straightforward way to keep things clear and minimize hiccups.

So, next time you get an IM or an email, remember to reply in the same platform - it's a simple yet effective way to keep the conversation flowing smoothly.

Replying to multiple mediums

If someone chases you up on IM about an email... when you finish the task you should reply on both mediums. E.g. "Done - see email"

Replying with a PBI link

If someone sends an email that you converted to a PBI, you should reply to the email with the PBI link, so everyone knows where to follow up.

When handling email threads within instant messaging (IM), adding a "✅ Done - see {{ EMAIL SUBJECT }}" a clear and concise way to close off a thread.

Benefits of using this method

• Clarity and efficiency - "Done - see email" offers clarity by indicating that an email-related task has been completed. This concise signal minimizes unnecessary back-and-forth, allowing you to focus on more critical matters
• Reducing IM clutter - In busy work environments, IM platforms can become crowded. Closing email discussions with "Done - see email" declutters your IM threads, making it easier to manage conversations
• Record Keeping - This phrase helps maintain a record of actions taken. It serves as a timestamped reference point for future discussions, aiding in task recall

Using "Done - see email" wisely

• Employ it when a task related to an email is complete
• Specify action details in the email if necessary
• Summarize key points in complex email threads

Close off a thread by "✅ Done - see {{ EMAIL SUBJECT }}" in IM to streamline conversations, reduce overload, and maintain organized records, ultimately improving productivity.

You should always try and reply to emails and IM messages within a timely period, but this is not always possible.

Sometimes people see a 6-month old task/question, and just delete/ignore thinking it's "too old"... or because "the customer will think we're a joke taking this long to do something!" No matter how long it takes to do some tasks, it's always better to get it done.

Of course, there are tasks that can be irrelevant with the passage of time. You should still reply and state that you don't believe it is needed anymore.

Always reply to emails and IM messages regardless of how long it takes to respond. It shows you value the sender's input and they'll know their ideas and suggestions are not ignored.

Communication can be difficult (even if English is your first language!). When using Teams/Zoom/Skype, it might be tempting to only chat via text in IM, but this will not improve your skills or build a relationship as well as communicating verbally.

Tips to have a better call

Try to always answer the call with video (if weak bandwidth, use it for the first 10 seconds and say "I'll turn off video to save bandwidth").

Sound

• Be ready with the headset already on (it looks disorganized setting it up after you are on the call)
• Check the sound quality of the microphone - you need a good mic and it should be close to your mouth - if you are using the laptop mic, sit in close

Video

• Check the image quality of the camera

• Beware of the angle of the camera - laptops with thin bezels now put the camera at the base, looking up your nose. Avoid them. Frame your head and shoulders in the shot, and keep the camera lens at or above eye level - use a stand if necessary

  

• Get your video background right

  

  

• Keep a light source on your face, and try to avoid sitting with a window behind you
• Have a microfiber cloth and wipe off the lens from time to time

Text

• It's always helpful to confirm things you're talking about with typed text during the call (especially helpful for people with English as a second language).

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For more info, see how to look and sound great online

In person conversations are much better than chats over the phone. Skype or Teams calls with video cams are great, but you won’t do that all the time for bandwidth and processing power reasons. The next best thing is to have a great professional picture of yourself.

• Avoid using a built-in image
• Ideally, have a photo that shows head and top of shoulders close up. Not too far away
• Your face must not be obstructed with other objects or excessive head cover (e.g. ski mask)
• Not blurred, pixelated, washed out or over-exposed image. You should be recognizable in your high quality picture
• An actual photo of yourself. Not a cartoon, objects or family member(s)

Using your company name as part of your Display Name has the double advantage of firstly branding, and secondly, indicating to other parties that your IM account is for work purposes.

Be aware that while you can change your display name, Skype doesn't allow you to rename the account... So use your full name. If you just use "Peter", then people can't distinguish you from the 3 other Peters they have.

Tip: If you travel around people often will ask you "Where are you?" You can avoid this by putting the square brackets where you currently are. E.g. [SSW Brisbane] or [Cisco Melbourne]

Your personal message can be used to promote good news stories of recent work you have done.

Especially when you have many clients added as IM contacts, what better group of people to share the good news with?

Your personal message should be simple, to the point, and make sure you change it at least once a month!

IM conversations often can be as important as emails, if not more so, because they are usually only used for high priority issues or issues that need to be resolved now. Therefore, it is very important to keep history of all your IM conversations. They can often be used as a reference point, or as a digital log of all the important issues that have been discussed. In fact, you can be guaranteed that you will want to revisit something you have discussed before with other employees.

Once this option is turned on, Skype will keep the last 3 months of your conversation history in the app - just scroll up to see older conversations. For conversations older than 3 months, the conversations are saved in a file called main.db in your Skype folder. The location of this folder depends on your OS and which version of Skype you are running. Visit the Skype FAQ to find out more.

The only exception to this rule of course is when you're using a public computer, in which case privacy and security issues arise by keeping IM history on that computer.

Once you have decided to put an IM chat into an email or manager may suggest a course of action or a piece of work that they would like completed. It's highly important that such chats are copied from the chat screen, pasted into an email, and sent to the client or manager with a note: "Confirming our IM chat this morning", and CC'ing anyone else who is relevant. Don't just paste the whole conversation into an email.Snip the relevant information only. You can do this by:

1. Deleting junk that is not related to the conversation
2. Deleting repetitive junk that makes it hard to read (like peoples’ names)
3. Adding a line break between people and highlighting the person's name in bold

Dealing with distractions is a fundamental rule to a successful project. Microsoft Teams is a great way to get distracted. Following these options helps you to minimize message distractions:

1. Your machine - enable Teams on start-up

   • Now with the application always on your desktop, there is no reason to want email or phone alerts

2. Teams - Open notifications settings

   • Disable email alerts - this reduces bloat in your task list
   • Set all settings to "Only show in feed" - this prevents distracting phone and email alerts

Group calls are made for important discussions to be had, and distractions can derail them. Ever been in a group call where someone just vanishes? It's confusing and can mess up the flow of conversation.

Here are the best ways to minimize distractions:

Message 'BRB', 'I'm Back' or 'I have to go'

If you have to get up for a minute, avoid interruptinons and keep things moving by simply messaging in the chat that you'll be right back and then when you've returned. The same if you need to leave the conversation - simply message that you have to go with the reason and without interrupting.

This way the conversation doesn't need to pause if you are taking a break; and no one has to stop and wonder where you went.

Mute if someone comes to talk to you in person

Another way to keep the group call smooth is to mute your mic if someone comes to talk to you in person. This avoids distracting background noise.

Be mindful of people talking or other noises that might be registering into your microphone. It's OK to turn away for a minute, as long as you mute to keep the call free from random noise.

Dealing with distractions is a fundamental rule to a successful project. Skype is a great way to get distracted. Following these options helps you to minimize messaging/communication distractions:

1. Set your status to Busy - people will think twice before messaging you
2. Don't display an alert when a contact comes online or goes offline
3. Don't play a sound when you receive an email. Remember - you do need a sound when you receive an IM in case you're not looking at your PC when it arrives.