What NOT to say in an email?
LinkedIn News recently had an post about passive aggressive phrases to avoid in emails. Do you use any of these?
– Per last email
– For Future reference
– Bumping this to the top of your inbox…
– Just to be sure we are on the same page…
– Going forward…..
Here are a couple of additional tips for you to manage your emails (rather than the other way around)
#1 ‘Be nice, be respectful’ – If it isn’t something you wouldn’t say to them physically, don’t write it in an email – assume all emails get read.
#2 ‘Assume positive intent’: Do not misinterpret an innocuous status question into ‘am I not collaborating’. Start with assumed goodwill. This applies to life too.
#3 Write fewer emails : The elephant in the room – the quantum of emails! In his book, Indistractable, Nir Eyal calls out that on an average people get 100 mails/day. That could translate to more than half a productive work-day feeding our elephant brain of seemingly ‘doing work’.
So as he recommends, timebox your time with emails.
If possible have notifications off – I block my first half for critical work + reading and second for emails + meetings.
I also have a ‘Amma is busy at work’ post-it on my door, which oft gets overlooked. But well, one can only but try 🙂
Any other tips for effective communication at work?
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