Speaker 1: Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of iHeartRadio. Good Morning,
Speaker 1: This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast. Today's
Speaker 1: tip is to respond to emails even if you can't
Speaker 1: give an answer yet. People want to know that you
Speaker 1: have received their messages and will deal with them. Letting
Speaker 1: them know that that is true can ultimately save you time.
Speaker 1: Today's tip, like some others this week, comes from Laura
Speaker 1: May Martin's new book Up Time. She works at Google
Speaker 1: as the company's productivity guru, coaching executives to be more
Speaker 1: efficient with their time. In her book, she notes that
Speaker 1: the frequent productivity advice to check email just a few
Speaker 1: times a day does not really work in a corporate environment.
Speaker 1: Many people's jobs require them to see email more often
Speaker 1: than that. Plus, no one likes collaborating with a person
Speaker 1: who doesn't respond to email. Martin says, it's just frustrating,
Speaker 1: and if you are working with someone non responsive, it
Speaker 1: feels like they are putting their desires over the need
Speaker 1: for the team to move along. And more importantly, she
Speaker 1: writes a lot of inefficiencies in email come from people
Speaker 1: checking back in or bumping up an email because they
Speaker 1: haven't heard back from someone If you don't respond to
Speaker 1: an email, it usually ensures you'll get another email now
Speaker 1: If you don't respond to that. Another email is then
Speaker 1: followed by an instant chat to get your attention, which
Speaker 1: turns into a meeting added to your calendar. Probably it
Speaker 1: would be better to answer the email in the first place.
Speaker 1: Of course, you don't always know the answer to an email,
Speaker 1: or you don't have time to deal with it right now.
Speaker 1: That is fine. Even if you can't answer, you can respond.
Speaker 1: Martin suggests several holding responses, such as, Hey, I got
Speaker 1: your request and need to think about it this week.
Speaker 1: I'll let you know next week, or thanks for your email.
Speaker 1: I have time scheduled next Tuesday to work on this,
Speaker 1: so I'll get back to you Wednesday next week. And
Speaker 1: if you really aren't sure, try Hi, this is on
Speaker 1: my radar, but I'm not sure when I'll get to it.
Speaker 1: If you don't hear from me in the next month
Speaker 1: or so, feel free to follow back up. When you
Speaker 1: send emails like this, you come across as responsive and helpful,
Speaker 1: and most likely people will stop pinging you or trying
Speaker 1: to get time on your calendar. As Martin notes, people
Speaker 1: just want to be heard now. You don't have to
Speaker 1: respond to one hundred percent of your email. I'm sure
Speaker 1: we all get lots of spam, but actual colleagues requesting
Speaker 1: actual things is a different matter. Being responsive even when
Speaker 1: you can't answer, shows that you are a team player
Speaker 1: and will probably save time overall. In the meantime. This
Speaker 1: is Laura. Thanks for listening, and here's to making the
Speaker 1: most of our text. Thanks for listening to Before Breakfast.
Speaker 1: If you've got questions, ideas, or feedback, you can reach
Speaker 1: me at Laura at Laura vandercam dot com. Before Breakfast
Speaker 1: does a production of iHeartMedia. For more podcasts from iHeartMedia,
Speaker 1: please visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you
Speaker 1: listen to your favorite shows.