Literally Email Like a Boss
If you are buried under unanswered e-mails and constantly begin their answers with the words “I’m sorry for the delay,” do what I did BuzzFeed reporter and creative villain Katie Notopulos: immediately respond to their emails, using just a few words . She calls it “sending emails like the CEO,” the same phrase used in a 2001 New York Times article about how high-level executives typically send short, misspelled emails .
Notopoulos says she was perversely inspired by Sony and Clinton’s email leaks, which resulted in the discovery of many of these instant messages. She tried to emulate this style for a week and found it satisfying: “The buzz didn’t go away after that first day. It lasted all week. ” She applied it to her work email and got more work done. She applied it to her personal email and liked it even more: “I literally am not kidding when I say that I think it made me better!”
You can do it just like Katie, using one-line responses to end the conversation, or you can simply use that to check in and buy time to write a longer, guilt-free response.
Ever since I joined Lifehacker in May this year, I have found this strategy to be very important in dealing with the flood of public emails. I even installed a Keyboard Maestro shortcut for the sentence “I’m about to go through, but thanks!” (When I feel salty, I replace ! With a . ) Or try Inbox Smart Reply or Gmail Labs standard replies . Anything that shortens your answers. Next!