Use Email to Your Advantage
Episode 10
In this solo-episode, host Lee Caraher shares email etiquette tips that will help you get ahead.
You can become super valuable in your career by using email to your advantage.
How to Handle After-Hours Email
The burden your after-hours email puts on other people can be heavy because of the message the time sends. Everyone is juggling many different roles and sometimes you have to work into the evening if you attended a volunteer commitment or a ballet lesson earlier in the day.
How to use email to your advantage – so that it works for and not against you.
- Use the time delay feature on your emails between 6 PM and 8 AM in your time zone.
- If you do send an email late at night, make sure you say when you expect an answer in the first line. For example: “I know this is coming in late, please know that I don’t expect an answer until 3 PM (Pacific) on Monday.
- Only Look At The Subject Headers: Read the subject headers only one hour before you go to bed. Are there any urgent, high priority emails there? If yes, open them. If no, don’t open them.
- Do Not Reply to Email in the Morning until you’ve scanned your inbox. Prioritize your emails against each other and your own work load before you start answering them.
- Use rules or other apps to make your email more efficient. For example, set up bots that move Google Alerts, newsletters, and news feeds into other folders, leaving your email inbox clear from clutter.
Resources
Lee blogged on this here
HBR’s How Your After Hours Email Is Hurting Your Teams
Email Apps That Help
