Whether we like it or not, we always have more things to do. What compounds the problem is that our busyness takes us away from people we care. Our family feels they are not cared enough by you. If you are leading teams, team members feel that you don't have enough time for them. Lot of times we are caught by surprise by the fact that people we care about complain that they are not getting enough attention.

How does this assumption arise?

This does not happen overnight. People start making the assumption over a period of time. Let us take the following example

You receive a call at 10 AM from a friend and you tell him that you will get in touch with him later and you are busy with something and will call back after 1 hour.

You forget to return the call after 1 hour and your friend assumes that you are still busy. He waits for a day and you didn't call back.

Chances are that your friend may call you again to remind. But not every one does that. They expect to remember and call back. If you are not organized and you tend to be forgetful, this becomes a problem.

If this experience repeats multiple times, then people start making assumption that you are a 'busy' person and should not be disturbed.

Relationship go bad when communication gap increases. Recognize these as warning signs.

You come to know of things you should be aware of, as a surprise.
You start receiving fewer personal calls and fewer personal emails
People only approach you when things start becoming critical and you rarely receive advance notices/information.

Things to watch out from your side are

• Unreturned phone calls and messages: Return phone calls regularly. Explain clearly when you cannot return calls immediately.
• Unacknowledged e-mails: Improve e-mail habits and acknowledge e-mails regularly. Especially personal e-mails.
• Missed meetings or ignored requests for meetings: If you are required for a meeting, make sure you attend the meeting. Manage meetings effectively.

Though we never state explicitly that we are busy, people tend to take these 'busy' signals and assume that you need not be disturbed.

Watch Out!!!