How to Answer

Emailswith a special bonus – how to appear so much

more smarter when it comes to emails

Like a Pro

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We all know how to answer a work email, don’t we? But do we all do it the right way? I think there is always some place for improvement. I have written many posts on how to manage your inbox, I have even advocated the idea of not replying to all the messages you get. Here’s some tips on how to answer a work email like a pro. Get to the point quickly

I know you want to express how happy you are you got the email and you want to flood the first paragraph of the email with courteous words as poetic as the sunset over Tahiti beaches, but let me tell you one thing – not only no one expects that from you but they actually might not have time for that. Don’t waste sentences to blow someones ego or to be overly polite. Seriously! Get. To. The. Point.

TO ANSWER

EMAILS

HOW

LIKE A PRO

AND APPEAR SO MUCH SMARTER

Use bullet points and text formatting

Our attention span at work is constantly challenged making it difficult to read dense paragraphs of text.

Use bullet points where possible to summarise ideas, data, or conclusions and to provide succinct answers.

Michele Connolly from Get organised Wizard makes good point when she explains in her article how

important it is to keep emails simple by using bullet points.

follow Michelle on Twitter

Let the others reply firstIf you’re CCed on an email, and someone

else CCed would be better suited to provide an answer, let them do it first.

Rob Sobers from www.robsobers.com suggests even a rather radical solution of

deleting every email you are CCed on. I wonder what you think of that?

follow Rob on Twitter

Forward emails sent to you by mistake

Instead of replying with a long explanation saying how and why this and that does not concern you anymore, forward the email by replying and including the correct person on the thread.

Marsha Egan from the Inbox Detox explains the right way to forward email in her instructional video.

Follow Marsha on Twitter

Don’t speculate on intentWords are just words – what drives communication is very often our interpretation. Believe me, it’s hard to read emotions in emails. So don’t do that. Don’t speculate on intent.

This 99u.com article by Scott McDowell explains in a great way how to introduce emotions to you emails without making too many innuendos.

follow Scott on Twitter

Answer promptly in you scheduled timeIf you can answer something promptly (under two minutes) do it. If you have to take time to answer thoroughly, plan that time. Don’t create an awful backlog in your inbox, and frustrate the sender.

Tim Schraeder - Community Manager at @thegridio says that scheduling specific email times and turning off notifications saves him a lot of time! I couldn’t agree more.

follow Tim Schraeder on Twitter

Don’t answer at allSome emails are not meant to be replied to. If someone informs you about something that does not require your comment or answer then you really do not have to answer with, “Ok, thx” or “Great, got that.”

Seth Godin – Author, Blogger, Marketing Guru when asked about answering all emails simple says… "No, you shouldn't. But many people do, because there doesn't seem to be a great alternative. It's asymmetrical, and productivity loses to politeness."

Share random thoughts at odd hoursCreate a caché of short, random thoughts that you can auto-send in the middle of the night. These could be: a question about the status of a project or an inspiring quote out of nowhere.

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Well, you’ve just had a chance to get familiar with a bunch of useful tips that should and will increase your productivity greatly. The only way to make those work is by implementing them daily as habits. And remember that the only way to get rid of the bad habit is to replace it with the good one. To make it easier for you to trace the bad habits I have prepared a list of ridiculous habits other people have that are just apparently making them look smarter. In reality those are just ego tricks that blur the reality and kill productivity.

HOWTO APPEAR SO MUCH

SMARTER WHEN ANSWERING EMAILS

Send vague but frequent status updates

Start every other email with this snippet that you hope will immediately impress your colleagues. They probably won’t read much past this, so feel free to follow it with a meaningless data point on this month’s returning users or the new engineer that’s joining the team in 4 months. This may include some deep and rather irrelevant points on business strategies and so on.

Wait a week before responding to direct requests, then ask if it’s still needed

Never respond to direct requests right away. If your help is truly needed, that person will find you, but most likely he’ll just ask someone else. After 7 days has passed, respond with, “This got buried, still needed?” That is actually the avoiding technique you can use in real life situations as well. Pretend you are not there.

Complain about how much email you get

Complaining makes you so much more busier than you actually are. And makes you look important. After all it is all about keeping up the appearances, isn’t it? When complaining do not forget to mention that you somehow manage to get through this incredibly massive load of emails daily and still have time to… complain about it.

How To Answer Email Like A Pro And Appear So Much Smarter

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