Speaker 1: Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of I Heart Radio.
Speaker 1: Good Morning. This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast.
Speaker 1: Today's tip is to send handwritten notes. You may be
Speaker 1: wondering why this is a productivity tip. I know that
Speaker 1: writing notes takes time. It's always quicker to send a
Speaker 1: text or email, but sending handwritten notes doesn't take a
Speaker 1: ton of time, and precisely because so few people do it.
Speaker 1: Using pen, paper and stamps can create a strong enough
Speaker 1: impression that you come out ahead. I've always liked stationary
Speaker 1: and pens, but I really saw how special people consider
Speaker 1: handwritten notes about a year or so ago, when I
Speaker 1: was trying to get people to pre order a previous
Speaker 1: book of mine called Off the Clock. Lots of authors
Speaker 1: do these preorder campaigns, and in my case, if people
Speaker 1: ordered a hardcover version of the book before the release
Speaker 1: date and sent in their address through before on my website,
Speaker 1: I said I'd mailed them assigned book plate. This is
Speaker 1: basically a fancy sticker that they could put inside the book,
Speaker 1: so even though the book was coming from Amazon or
Speaker 1: Barnes and Noble or somewhere like that, it would be
Speaker 1: signed and made out to them. Simple enough. Then I figured,
Speaker 1: since I was signing a sticker and my team was
Speaker 1: getting it into an envelope, why not write a note
Speaker 1: thanking people for buying my book? So I did. Most
Speaker 1: of my notes just said something real quick along the
Speaker 1: lines of thank you so much for pre ordering off
Speaker 1: the clock, I appreciate the support. I hope you enjoyed
Speaker 1: the book. I stuck these notes in the mail. Then
Speaker 1: a funny thing happened. People kept taking photos of the
Speaker 1: notes and posting them on social media. Apparently it was
Speaker 1: cool enough to get a handwritten note that it was
Speaker 1: worth posting alongside photos of avocado toast or cappuccino. Fom art.
Speaker 1: People who liked my books were sharing news about my
Speaker 1: new book with their friends. I did not write these
Speaker 1: thank you notes to create a social media campaign, but
Speaker 1: it was an effective one. In the past year or so,
Speaker 1: I've spent some time thinking about why this is. I
Speaker 1: realized that handwritten notes stand out because almost no one
Speaker 1: sends them. Even the Christmas cards I get these days
Speaker 1: are often just a photo with no note. When I
Speaker 1: look at the mail I get, it's usually ads or
Speaker 1: solicitations for nonprofits or bills. Whenever I do get a
Speaker 1: handwritten note. I opened it immediately, I get a warm
Speaker 1: fuzzy feeling about the person. I bet other people do
Speaker 1: the same. It just feels special to get a note,
Speaker 1: and that warm fuzzy feeling can go a long ways. Indeed,
Speaker 1: I bet a handwritten note creates at least ten times
Speaker 1: the impression of an email, but it doesn't take ten
Speaker 1: times as long to write. Since the Before Breakfast podcast
Speaker 1: is all about being efficient and effective, that seems like
Speaker 1: a big win right there. So if you're listening to
Speaker 1: this podcast and would like to start sending handwritten notes,
Speaker 1: how can you build this into your already busy life. First,
Speaker 1: you can make handwriting notes take less time by keeping
Speaker 1: supplies on hand. I buy boxes of pretty thank you
Speaker 1: notes and large batches. These can wind up being to
Speaker 1: fifty cents a piece in bulk every year or two.
Speaker 1: I also order several hundred note cards with my name
Speaker 1: on them and matching envelopes with a nice interior design.
Speaker 1: They look really fancy, but if you order enough, you
Speaker 1: can get them for two dollars or less a piece
Speaker 1: that's cheaper than a greeting card but looks a lot
Speaker 1: more impressive. I also keep stamps and return address labels
Speaker 1: in my top desk drawer. This means that grabbing a
Speaker 1: note card and an envelope and a stamp takes just
Speaker 1: a few seconds. Writing a few lines can take just
Speaker 1: a minute or two. The whole process doesn't need to
Speaker 1: consume more than five minutes. You can do this while
Speaker 1: you're waiting for a conference call to start. You might
Speaker 1: challenge yourself to start by sending one note a week.
Speaker 1: You can probably come up with one occasion a week
Speaker 1: if you think about it. One idea look on social
Speaker 1: media to see who has a birthday coming up. Sure
Speaker 1: it's easy enough to post happy Birthday on their feed,
Speaker 1: but why not send a card to write a short
Speaker 1: note with a memory from the past year or previous birthday,
Speaker 1: and then wish the person many happy returns of the day.
Speaker 1: Or you could send a thank you note. Maybe something
Speaker 1: happened recently as a result of an introduction someone made
Speaker 1: for you a long time ago, why not thank the
Speaker 1: person now. Or maybe something memorable happened in your life
Speaker 1: around this time of year many years ago. Think about
Speaker 1: the friends or relatives who are with you when the
Speaker 1: memory happened. Why not send a note saying you're thinking
Speaker 1: about the person and you hope he or she is
Speaker 1: doing well. I know that because everyone relies on electronic
Speaker 1: communication these days, you might not even have the person's
Speaker 1: physical mailing address, but you can get them pretty easily.
Speaker 1: Even if you don't have a massive holiday card file.
Speaker 1: You can mail your note to the person's office I
Speaker 1: mean corporate addresses, or you real pretty easy to find.
Speaker 1: You could google the person's name in the town where
Speaker 1: they live and the address will often pop up because
Speaker 1: property purchases tend to be public records. Or if that
Speaker 1: sounds a little bit creepy, then just shoot the person
Speaker 1: an email and say you have something to drop in
Speaker 1: the mail, ask if you can get his or her
Speaker 1: mailing address. Most people reply quickly to an email like
Speaker 1: that because they're pretty excited to get something other than
Speaker 1: bills in the mail. So take a few minutes today
Speaker 1: and order some note cards and start thinking about who
Speaker 1: you'd like to write. I promise it will be worth
Speaker 1: your time, because, guess what, people are a good use
Speaker 1: of time, and handwriting notes is a good way to
Speaker 1: show people that they map. In the meantime, this is Laura,
Speaker 1: Thanks for listening, and here's to making the most of
Speaker 1: our time. Hey everybody, I'd love to hear from you.
Speaker 1: You can send me your tips, your questions, or anything else.
Speaker 1: Just connect with me on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram at
Speaker 1: Before Breakfast pod. That's B the number four, then Breakfast
Speaker 1: p o D. You can also shoot me an email
Speaker 1: at Before Breakfast podcast. At i heeart media dot com
Speaker 1: that Before Breakfast is spelled out with all the letters.
Speaker 1: Thanks so much, I look forward to staying in touch.
Speaker 1: Before Breakfast is a production of I heart Radio. For
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