Effective Email Etiquette

Over the past two weeks, I've focused on communication best practices, covering synchronous communication (meetings) previously. Now, let's dive into the importance and best practices for asynchronous communication, particularly email and Slack. Today's post will be kind of tactical, but crucial. Hope you find it valuable!

Effective at Asynchronous Communication

Asynchronous communication occupies about 77% of our work time. Since I didn’t find an official source, ChatGPT estimates we receive 121 emails*, send 40, and engage in a dozen direct communications daily. Combined, that's roughly 185 asynchronous interactions. Assuming each takes two minutes, we spend about 6.2 hours (or 77% of our work time) daily on such communication, explaining why we sometimes feel we cannot accomplish much during work hours.

Consider the types of communication you dislike receiving. Firstly, there are lengthy, unstructured emails, often involving multiple recipients and lacking clear asks or next steps. Secondly, there are requests over Slack or Teams messages that interrupt our tasks, but require so much of our time that we are left unsure whether to prioritize them or request an email instead. In both cases, a usual practice is to start reading, close, and mark as unread. This means we're not just receiving 185 pieces of communication; we're also voluntarily re-reading some of them (ouch!).

Your email is competing for the attention of people who are biased to cover the easy first. The majority of people Cherry-Pick while reading their emails. This phenomenon, driven by our inclination to tackle simple tasks first (from our Homer Simpson-selves), leads us to feel more accomplished after clearing numerous easy emails than addressing a few challenging ones.

Call to action: 7 tips for effective asynchronous communication, gathered from over a decade of crowdsourcing:

1. Craft clear subject lines to attract attention: Make them cherry-pick your email, using brackets or separators. For example: "(Approval needed by EOD) Financial Estimates" or "2min read | Approved Financial Estimates".

2. Target your email carefully: Minimize "reply all" usage. Specify any changes in the recipient list (added or removed) at the beginning of the email to keep transparency.

3. Structure your email concisely: (1) Start with the main point and ask; (2) Follow with context if necessary (if lengthy, this can be an attachment); (3) Politely offer further clarification if needed; (4) End with a sign-off that suits your style. According to Mashable, the top three are: "All the best", "Thanks", and just your initials (baller move IMO).

4. Acknowledge receipt: For time-consuming emails, indicate when you'll respond to prevent uncertainty for the sender.

5. Be a kind forwarder: Provide a brief summary of why they're relevant to the recipient rather than just adding them with an "FYI".

6. (My favorite) Utilize the delayed send feature to retract emails in case of errors: Instructions are available for Outlook and Gmail.

7. Reserve direct messaging (e.g., Slack, Teams) for brief exchanges or urgent matters. For tasks requiring more than two minutes, use email. Urgent emails should be labeled appropriately and you can then follow up with a direct message. Why 2 minutes? Because productivity guru David Allen determined so over 20 years ago.

Whether asynchronous communication takes 77% of your work time or slightly less, mastering it remains vital in corporate settings. Please share your own tips in the comments below (web version).

Did this take 2 minutes to read? I guess it depends on how fast you read?,

Jorge Luis Pando

*PS: I used to ask participants of my trainings how many emails they receive in a day and the average was around 120. ChatGPT's estimate of 121 freaks me out a bit.

"The problem with email is that people think it's electronic mail. It's not. It's a slot machine. Every time I pull down on the lever, I'm hoping for something good to come out." - Michael Arrington, former editor of TechCrunch