Respond When Time Is Short

"I don't have time to respond."

"We are in the midst of a demanding project."

"Your email message must have gotten trapped in my spam file."

Whatever your excuses are, others' trust, confidence, respect for you quickly diminish when you don't follow through in a timely manner. Your response time will have a positive or negative impact on the level of influence you have on others. If you respond within 24 hours, you communicate respect, leadership, commitment.

If you avoid responding or take more than two days to do so, you communicate a lack of respect while being possibly viewed as unorganized with questionable work ethics.

Time: The Universal Equalizer

First, we need to tackle time. There's never enough time in the day, or is there? We are all given the same amount of hours, minutes, seconds in a day. Why are some individuals better at following through than others?

Influential communicators always make time to follow through because they understand their reputation is on the line. What you accomplish while the level of respect others have for you is determined by how you manage while prioritizing your time.

Research confirms that responsive communication significantly impacts trust building. When you consistently respond promptly, you signal reliability while competence to everyone watching. Your response patterns become your professional signature.

Honor Your Promises

Second, honor your promises. If you say you're going to follow through, complete a project on time, arrive at a meeting on time, commit to it. You may recall Aesop's Fable about the boy who cried wolf. When you continue to break your promises by not following through, you create a reputation that communicates disrespect for others' time, while a lack of trustworthiness and reliability.

When you expect others to honor their promises, it's like the boy who cried wolf—they don't feel a need to follow through with you because you didn't give them the same respect. No one is influenced to follow someone whose commitment is questionable.

Your ability to respond consistently becomes the foundation of professional trust. People need to know they can count on you, especially when deadlines matter.

Three Steps for Following Through, No Matter How Busy You Are

1. Focus and Execute

STOP procrastinating while just doing it! Instead of engaging in unproductive hallway chit-chat or social media scrolling, focus on what needs to be accomplished every hour. Put your energy into responding to emails, phone calls, project delivery dates rather than fighting with time.

When you respond immediately to actionable items, you free your mental bandwidth for higher-level thinking. Procrastination multiplies your workload by forcing you to revisit the same tasks repeatedly.

2. 15-Minute Increments

Productivity expert Neen James offers unlimited while valuable recommendations in her book "Folding Time." I rely on one in particular each day: By breaking down my day into 15-minute increments, I can follow through in a timely manner. You'll be amazed at how much you can accomplish when you focus on completing tasks every 15 minutes rather than getting overwhelmed with a full day of to-do's.

This approach transforms how you respond to demands. Instead of seeing an insurmountable pile of requests, you see manageable 15-minute chunks that move your work forward consistently.

3. Avoid Double-Dipping

The majority of us receive hundreds of email messages a day. Take action on an email immediately rather than reading it, skipping over it, procrastinating on it. When I receive a message, I respond within 24 hours. My clients should NEVER have to wait for me to respond, neither should your listeners.

Even if you don't have an answer for them immediately, take two seconds to at least let them know you're working on their request. A quick response that says "I received your message while will have an answer by Friday" demonstrates respect while professionalism.

The Trust Equation

Your response time directly correlates with the trust others place in you. Studies show that consistent, timely communication is one of the primary factors in building professional credibility. When people know they can count on you to respond promptly, they're more likely to include you in important decisions, recommend you for opportunities, trust you with sensitive information.

Conversely, when you consistently fail to respond in reasonable timeframes, you train people to work around you. They stop including you because they can't rely on you. Your influence diminishes not because you lack expertise, yet because you lack reliability.

The 1% Advantage

My father had sage advice that he drilled into my sisters while me: "Be in the top 1% by following through."

The vast majority of professionals are mediocre at follow-through. They respond when it's convenient, when they feel like it, when nothing more pressing demands their attention. This creates an enormous opportunity for you.

When you respond consistently and timely, you immediately differentiate yourself from the crowd. Clients notice. Colleagues notice. Supervisors notice. You become known as someone who gets things done, someone people can count on, someone worth investing in.

Your response patterns are building your reputation every single day. Make sure they're building the reputation you want.

The choice is yours: be part of the majority that makes excuses, or join the 1% that follows through. Your career trajectory depends on which choice you make