Getting More Out of Less Emails
As a follow-up to 7 Tips for Making Email More Effective, here’s an eighth way to get the most out of your email: Use if-then-else structure.
For non-programmers, if-then-else was how developers told the computer to handle various scenarios, depending on what was true or not. For instance:
If condition A is true, do A
Else if condition B is true, do B
Else if condition C is true, do C
….
Else do X
You can use the same structure to get more out of your email. Instead of going back-and-forth with a series of short messages, why not just account for all possibilities in one email?
The structure is quite similar:
If this is true, here’s the info you need/here’s what we can do
Else if this is true, here’s the info you need/here’s what we can do
Else if this is true, here’s the info you need/here’s what we can do
….
Else here’s the info you need/here’s what we can do
Do you see the similarity? Let’s look at a sample email to make things a bit clearer:
Hi Jason,
Thanks for your interest! Will you send mock-ups or scans of the project requirements to me? You can have anything shipped to 123 Street, City, US, or send any scans to this email address.
Regards,
Rico M.
As you can see, the above message attempts to account for all possibilities, and presents information relevant to each likely scenario. Aside from minimizing those wasteful back-and-forth emailing, your contacts will be grateful for receiving the info they need promptly
Tags: email, emailing, if-then-else email, minimizing emailsRelated Stories
POSTED IN: Productivity Drivers
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