I have a friend who sometimes calls me at home to chat, which is a habit that I haven’t much indulged in since fourth form.

Lying on my bed one evening doing my very best Claudia Kishi impression (she was the only member of the 1980s Babysitters Club with her own phone) I got to thinking about simple communication.

The stuff we used to do before there was all this whizz-bang.

I have a theory that just as there is a return to traditional skills like growing vegetables and making jam, there will one day be a return to old fashioned communications. Perhaps people will shuck off their Twitter accounts and mobile phones and return to hand-written letters and phone trees? Communication will slow down, become face to face again and become essential and more meaningful.

There’s a lot to be said about getting back to simple, yet effective communication.

I’d like to introduce people to the ‘low priority’ flag in Outlook – it’s the often overlooked cousin of the much more popular ‘high priority’ flag. Use it for emails that you need to send but that don’t need to be answered straight away. Do your workmate/boss/mother a favour and tag them low-priority signaling that you know they’re busy and this really can wait.

On a recent trip to work our train was delayed because the driver of the train ahead ran a red light.

While communicating to a diverse group of people can be a challenge that needs a careful plan, in this situation we were set up for success. We had:

• Everyone that needed to hear the communication confined to a series of carriages
• A train-wide intercom system
• A small team of guards led by the train manager, and
• Two clear, key messages to deliver: that we were going to be late for work, and why.

Yet the only information we got was a guard yelling at one end of the carriage ‘you’re all going to be late for work today folks” then leaving. Too bad for people with headphones on and those who were asleep. My communication solution? Turn on the intercom; let everyone know an announcement will be made, outline what’s happened and when we’re likely to get moving again. If anything changes past that, give an update. Simple yet effective.

Thank you cards are on my simple-yet-effective communication list and so are setting expectations. Learn the art from our Practice Manager Rachel who, during our recent recruitment round, emailed everyone who had applied for our vacancy and let them know exactly how long it would be until we got back to them.

Perhaps this isn’t simple communications at all … perhaps it’s just about good manners?