Professionals spend an average of 28% of every workday on email, which comes out to more than two and a half hours each day, Inc. reports.
However, psychologist, TED speaker and author Adam Grant says there is one sentence you can write at the end of each email that will recoup some of the time sunk into email.
The sentence should look like this, according to Inc.: “If you can, I would appreciate a response by ____, so that ____.”
For example, to a potential customer: “If you can, I would appreciate a response by Wednesday afternoon, so that we can lock in the pricing we discussed.”
The important thing is to let the recipient know when you need a response and why. Even better, if something isn’t urgent, let them know that.
Grant says that research by Cornell’s Vanessa Bohns shows a big mismatch between what senders expect from email recipients and what those recipients believe is expected. Being clear can help prevent this disconnect. Read the full story.
