How many communication channels do we have these days? Email, phone, whatsapp, Facebook, LinkedIn and more. Have you ever seen a message, thought you would reply later and then forgot to reply? I dropped the ball.
I had dinner with some good friends last night and we got talking about dropping balls. How we didn’t always manage to get everything we wanted done.
What can we do about it? One thing is to slow down and write a note so you can come back to it. Another is to really look at all the balls and ask if they all need to be kept and whether we should drop some of them intentionally.
It reminds me of an insightful presentation about communication given by a fantastic coach Desiree Steinmann. She threw a tennis ball in the audience and asked them to throw it back. She caught it, threw it again and when the ball came back this time, she caught it, looked at it and dropped it. On the third go, she stepped aside and didn’t even look at the ball. She was demonstrating that we always have the choice on how we respond to balls being thrown at us.
It was more about communication however I think this also applies to tasks as well, even if we threw the ball up in the air in the first place. Take another look and decide if you want to catch the ball or drop it.