How do you choose to communicate: email, IM, or phone?

As a friend of IT, I think no one denies the importance of focusing on the issue, but we are often disturbed by unnecessary factors. For example, loud noises, such as noisy traffic on the street ...... But these are not the factors discussed today. Let's just talk about some of the factors that we can control in the project development process-communication methods!

As a way of project communication, we have many options: phone, Email, IM (Msn, QQ ......) and so on.

The phone call brings us convenience, but it also brings us troubles. No matter how busy you are and how important your work is, you have to stop to answer a phone call that may have nothing to do with you, hanging up the phone, then you will find that it is very difficult to go back to your thoughts. Maybe a great idea will die ...... If possible, I really hope that there will be a do-not-disturb function on the phone, which can eliminate some interference when we need it!

The biggest difference between an email and a phone number is that the phone number does not disturb work while the email does not disturb work. The recipient can handle some things at the right time, instead of being forced to do something. However, in actual work, many of us have ignored the importance of emails as described in my previous article "on mail management in project management", and many people prefer to speak over the phone).

But there may be two extreme cases: calls are used to handle some urgent tasks, and emails are used to handle tasks that are not very urgent. As a compromise, IM is a good choice-on the basis of minimizing interference with others' work and ensuring a certain degree of timeliness.

In today's offices, people are over-reliant on phones. The direct consequence of this over-reliance is to some extent the reduction in productivity. Then how can we choose the communication method? refer to the Peopleware section to illustrate this problem:

"We must learn to ask ourselves: is this message worth disturbing others' work? Can I continue my work while waiting for a reply? Do I need to pay attention to this message immediately? If not, how long can he wait without a problem"

If you have fully considered the problems mentioned above, I think you know how to do it.

By extension, a suitable way of communication also shows a person's respect for others. You can ask yourself: for some minor irrelevant questions, what kind of mood do you feel when you are constantly interrupted by phone?

Currently, there are few references to this issue in the company management system. I don't know which method do you use in your current project communication?