If You Are Too Busy to Send a Reply Now, Please Let the Email Recipient Know When They Can Expect It.
We’ve all experienced email congestion and some emails take quite a long time to write a response. If you don’t have time to jump straight to the email, at least tell the recipient when they can expect a response from you.
Writer Sarah McCord at Muse offers some tips on how to respond to work emails in a timely manner. She writes:
If you just wait a week to return to someone, he will think that you consider it secondary, and this does not bring joy to anyone. However, if you answer him right away, specifying when you will be contacting you, it seems like it was really important for you to provide the schedule as soon as possible.
By setting an expectation of when he can expect a detailed response, you are being mindful. And if you beat that deadline, you are no longer the person who took five days to answer: you are the one who said it would take her a week, but answered two days earlier.
This is actually classic office etiquette, but it is useful for several additional reasons. First, it forces you to set aside time for an actual response, rather than letting the email remain in your inbox forever. And second, it makes sure the recipient knows you’ve received the email, so you don’t have to worry about them filling your inbox with more replies. For more tips read McCord’s full post at the link below.
How To Reply To Every Email Within 24 Hours (Even If You Have No Answer) | Muse
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