I admit to thinking about what I’m going to say while others are talking, but for a reason. I’m very conscious of good listening skills, I try to acknowledge what is being said and I summarize the information in my head so that I can retain it better. That being said, I also have a terrible memory which causes me some difficulty. As soon as someone says something that illicits an important response from me a part of me shits to summarizing and remembering what I need to say. It’s almost guaranteed that, if I don’t do this, I will completely forget it.
My poor memory, particularly for conversations, is why I began mentally summarizing what people say to me. By distilling the information to the important points I can generally remember them after the conversation. Most of the time I can remember what they’ve said and what I need to say in this way. Sometimes though, the information gets to be too much, as if my memory buffer is full. I usually have to make a conscious decision about which information to hold on to. Most of the time I choose to keep what the person is saying to me in the hopes that I’ll still be able to remember what I wanted to say. If it’s really important though, I’ll either keep thinking of my question or go ahead and find a way to interrupt so I can empty out the buffer.
When there’s a quick back and forth there’s no problem, but if someone drones on and doesn’t let me get a word in, I find myself making tough choices.
Hey good post! I do think that speaking while others are speaking is not the best thing to do. Listening to their full thoughts should be done before a response is given. Although you said you do it for good reason and anything could be acceptable if it has good reason. If you have great information to give but know that you are going to forget it then I do feel that is a good enough reason to interrupt people. Mentally summarizing is something that I feel I do as well. It is a great way of understanding what people are saying.
ReplyDelete