Before asking someone a question, search for the answer yourself first. Asking things you could find in manuals, emails, or Google wastes your colleague's time and breaks their focus, even if a quick question seems faster.
How to ask questions, tip number 15. Don't ask questions that you could easily look up the answers to. When we ask questions, we're looking for information, but asking other people isn't always the best or most efficient way, and certainly not the only way, to find answers. You can use a search engine. You can Google the answer. You can look at user manuals, find something on YouTube. You can look at previous email chains, check out the process manuals at work. There are lots of sources of information. That you could look up and get an answer. Just because you'd like someone else to give it to you quickly doesn't mean it's the right thing to do to ask the question. If you can look for an answer yourself, it's usually better to do that. Now, if you don't do this, if you ask somebody a question that you could easily look up the answer to, what you're doing is taking time away from them and their work. You are interrupting them, breaking their process flow. If they're in a deep work phase, if you're familiar with that phrase, you can be pulling them up out and then breaking their concentration cycle. It's also taking twice as much time, or taking time for 2 people to get to an answer that you could have taken time just for yourself to find. This isn't to say you should never ask other people. Sometimes it is much more convenient to lean over to the person next to you and they can hand you an answer within a second rather than you taking half an hour to find it. But if you can easily find an answer for yourself, do that rather than asking a question.
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