Reply To: Exercise 12: Feedforward
Feed-forward by Evelyn Wallace
I wanted to step up my professional emailing game. I liked having a reason to contact people and I think they felt honored/ important to be asked (even those who said they were by no means experts themselves). I feel like getting all this advice has made me a better emailer already, even with limited opportunity to practice yet.
From Abel:
• Be specific about what I’m actually asking for
• Keep different/ separate email inboxes (by project/ personal)
• Don’t be afraid to unsubscribe from newsletters you don’t read
• Don’t linger on emails that don’t matter (mark as read or delete right away)
• Don’t be a perfectionist: the more emails you write, the easier it gets (i.e. quantity is the route to quality)
• Make checking emails an integral part of my work day so they don’t pile up
• Find work-life harmony; you don’t have to put up severe barriers like “I don’t check email on weekends.” Maybe check for a few minutes on Saturday afternoon, then it’s less daunting on Monday. (Secondarily: don’t be afraid to take Monday morning off for personal issues if that’s what feels harmonious)
• Scroll through inboxes (even sent) every so often when you have a few extra minutes to check for anything that maybe fell through the cracks
From Hayden:
• Get emails started well in advance, even if you don’t send it; draft it when you have the thought
o Add “send email on Sunday morning” (or whatever) to your to-do list, even if you start drafting it on Thursday morning
• Draft as a word document or in or directly in email platform, depending on needs/ structure/ intensity/ importance of email
• Prepare for people to “glaze over” you emails; don’t use more words than you really have to
• Review blog post “one-minute emails”
• Use flagging/ starring system to make sure you remember to respond to things (not let things fall through the cracks)
From Haylee:
• Use labels to stay organized
• If you open it and it requires a response and you don’t have time to respond, star it or mark it as unread (or indicate in some way that works for you that it’s an action item)
• Don’t be afraid to delete old/ unused things: “the cloud” takes actual energy
From Eugene:
• Find tools that work in sync (something like Superhuman? It costs money but does a lot of the heavy lifting for you)
o Such tools have functions built-in
• Schedule an email to send in the AM if you don’t want it to arrive in the middle of the night
• Keep it simple
o Use “unread” button if you know you need to get back to it
• Consider multiple email addresses; one for personal, one for professional, one for a specific project, etc.
• Integrate email action items into systems I already use (e.g. calendar)
From Mary:
• Be conscientious of who’s receiving and what’s being communicated (is this personal? Professional? Etc)
• Communicate with folks via their preferred mode of communication. Some people won’t respond to an email for months but will send a text back in 30 seconds.
• Figure out “read” receipt, so I know they opened it; only request such receipts for important (to THEM) communication. So they can’t say “I never got that!”
• If I need to send a follow-up email, PUT THAT ON MY CALENDAR
• Use subject line that is clear, concise; a summary
o Subject line should be interesting and informative
• If something is super important, ATTACH IT (as attachment) for recipients to download/ save in their own desktop folders. Then they don’t have to scan a million emails to find that important info in the body of the email.
• Put most important info of email in the first few sentences/ at the top
• Create folders in email platform for each group I communicate with; make sub-folders
• Respond ASAP to ALL emails, even if only to say “got it! More later, so standby”; acknowledge receipt as soon as possible
• Use hyperlinks
• Do NOT “reply all” if you only need to reply
• BCC yourself for big group emails; or send it to yourself and BCC everyone else (to protect email privacy and also to make sure it’s actually being received/ not getting sent to spam)
From Glenda:
• If sending email after 5 or on weekends, don’t expect an answer until the next business day
• Or add an addendum to signature like “I work outside standard business hours; please respond at your convenience during the hours you work”
• If I do need a response by a certain time, be clear about that; or use alternate modes of communication if it’s urgent (e.g. text)
From Olivia:
• Use email as a means of summary, not means of escalation or problem-identification
o Don’t use email to “balloon up” a problem; talk to people in person then use email to summarize
o Suggest people take convo offline if I notice they are “ballooning up” a problem
• If I draft an email in the middle of the night, schedule them to be sent first thing in the morning
• Use short subject lines
• Add a TL;DR in first line of email; keep pleasantries short and sweet, then get to the point
From Jim:
• Put thought into crafting the subject line: that’s the biggest determinant of someone reading or not
o Be aware that people don’t read things that don’t look important
o Use phrases like “FYI” in subject line for emails that are interesting but not urgent
• Identify what I need from reader within first sentence
• Keep emails short; be prepared for people to tune out
• Think of emails like a resume: a way to get my foot in the door, not to lay out the whole story. Don’t give readers a meal, give them a bite.
• Lower down, include lengthier copy; add heading like “for those of you who want more info…”
• Keep paragraphs SHORT and add spaces between paragraphs
From Sherri:
• Don’t put things off! If you can respond, respond.
• If using outlook express, use flag button
• Create additional folders for people/ projects
From Beth:
• Get a second set of eyes to review important emails before sending
• Use professional language, not too familiar (for professional emails)
• Tailor language to reader:
o Talk like I’m talking to a drunk person
o Be concise and precise