Tips & Tricks Tuesday: Living abroad and phoning home
In our increasingly global world, communication can be tricky; when you consider timezones halfway around the world, it can be downright difficult just to find time to get in touch. This week’s tip, shared by robyn.sukenik, discusses a few ideas about how to find the right window time to communicate – and how to make sure you don’t miss it!
One of the harder things about living abroad is keeping in touch with all the friends and family back home that I really want to keep in touch with. While emails can be sent at any time, hearing voices from home over the phone is important when you’re far away, and RTM helps make it happen.
Schedules are hectic enough when you’re living in the same place. When you have to navigate multiple time zones and different days off, remembering to make the right calls at the right time for the friend in the other time zone takes a bit of extra planning and reminders.
That’s where RTM comes in. I add a #USCall tag to my US phone call tasks. When I’m setting the task I use a time zone converter to double check that I’m setting myself up to call them at the right times and not the middle of the night (something has happened when I’ve done the math on the fly). Then I set a reminder for the beginning of the window of time that I know I can catch them while noting when that window ends in my task.
Call Bob – Happy Birthday (2 hour window) ^Sunday 10:00 pm #USCall
People I want to keep up with regularly I set on repeat. And this means I have a great record with things like birthdays.
Bob appreciates that you remember his birthday! :)
Thanks for sharing this tip, robyn.sukenik! You’re our Tips & Tricks Tuesday winner this week.
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