8 Email Etiquette Tips - How to Write Better Emails at Work
Harvard Business Review
7 min, 1 sec
The video provides detailed strategies to enhance professional email communication skills, including eight specific tips to improve email etiquette.
Summary
- Understanding the importance of email etiquette can significantly affect workplace competency perception.
- The video offers eight detailed tips to write professional emails more effectively and avoid common mistakes.
- These tips include clear subject lines, maintaining email threads, explaining recipient changes, and optimizing reply settings.
- Additional advice includes structuring emails with the main point first, summarizing disorganized content, hyperlinking efficiently, and extending the undo send option.
Chapter 1
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The speaker introduces the topic of email etiquette and the benefits of mastering it in the workplace.
- Email etiquette mistakes won't ruin a career, but mastering it can influence how capable one is perceived.
- There are no standardized courses for email etiquette, so the speaker aims to share personal tips.
- The speaker, Jeff, partners with Harvard Business Review to discuss a passion for email etiquette.
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Chapter 2
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Poorly written emails can lead to confusion and unnecessary back-and-forth communication.
- A poorly written email can make it difficult to grasp the main point and scattered action items.
- This can result in a long email thread that could have been avoided with a well-planned initial email.
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Chapter 3
Chapter 4
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Use specific call-to-action subject lines that include the task and the estimated time required.
- Instead of a generic 'action required', indicate the specific action and the time it will take.
- Examples include '5-minute survey feedback for project X' or 'Elon to approve spending estimates for Q4'.
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Chapter 5
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Stick to one email thread per topic to provide context and avoid cluttering inboxes.
- Avoid sending separate emails for the same project as it leads to a lack of context and unnecessary inbox clutter.
- Use the original email chain for any given topic to keep all relevant information in one place.
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Chapter 6
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Explain why recipients were added or removed from email threads at the beginning of the email.
- When changing the recipients, add a sentence at the top of the email to indicate the changes.
- Italicizing the font and using parentheses helps separate this information from the body of the email.
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Chapter 7
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Start with the main point of an email before providing context.
- Avoid burying the main point at the end of an email; state it upfront followed by the necessary context.
- This approach respects the time of senior colleagues who may prefer to quickly understand the purpose of the email.
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Chapter 8
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When replying to disorganized emails, summarize the sender's main points to confirm understanding.
- Identify and summarize the common themes in a disorganized email before responding.
- This confirms your understanding and shows appreciation for the effort to organize thoughts.
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Chapter 9
Chapter 10
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Change the default email setting to reply to one person instead of reply all.
- Minimizing the impact of potential errors by limiting the audience with reply instead of reply all.
- This setting can be usually found in the general settings section of email clients.
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Chapter 11
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Increase the undo send option to 30 seconds to catch and correct mistakes after sending an email.
- Mistakes are often noticed shortly after sending, so an extended undo send duration can be helpful.
- This setting is adjustable in most email applications and provides a safety net for corrections.
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Chapter 12
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The speaker concludes the video with a call to action for feedback and invites viewers to subscribe to his channel.
- Jeff encourages the audience to comment on their favorite tips or share their current practices.
- Viewers are invited to subscribe to Jeff's YouTube channel for more productivity content.
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