For those of you who have had the opportunity to see (one or more times, more if you’re like me) Cool Hand Luke, you may recall these classic words.  “Yeah, well, sometimes nothin’ can be a real cool hand.”  We’re going to look as some of those “cool hand” options here.

The template

If you’re like most people, something in the ballpark of eighty percent of your email involves sending or responding to the same handful of basic messages… over and over again. Think of all the times you’ve groaned, and thought “Ugh. Again?” It’s with those messages that a template will save you lots of time.  There are some apps that are designed to provide you the ability to use, and create, email templates.  MailTemplate is one that works with Mail.app and Entourage and there are built-in templates in Thunderbird.  Either makes it easy to start a new email or a response based on an existing boilerplate document.  A quick search will give you options for virtually any mail client that you may use.

Use them for:

• Basic “thank you” responses
• Responses to frequently asked questions
• Responses to administrative information requests

I have to admit that I even have a few templates for “Flame” responses. I found that I spent a lot of time replying to those messages that you want to never receive again (you know the ones I’m talking about).  So at this point I’ve crafted a handful of very reasonable responses to the insane.

It’s more attention than some folks deserve, but I do like to be polite when I can. Automated politeness requires a LOT less keystrokes.

The link

I get a lot of requests from friends and clients that a simple Google search away.  You can refer back to the first trick (the Template) and create a simple “Here’s a link that might be what you’re looking for…”  and you’ve saved a lot of keystrokes (to say nothing of brain power,

The question

I’m not proud of this one, but I do use it. If I’ve sat on an email for a long time, I sometimes get the ball back in motion with a very low-threshold question to the sender.  Honestly? Asking the simple question “Do you still need this?” might be the most time-saving question you’ve ever asked.

The “I don’t know”

If you don’t have an answer for something, please just say so. Definitely don’t do the opposite — tap-dancing gamely for three screens to try and seem smart.  It may make you feel like you’ve done something, but it’s wasted your time and the time of one that’s got to read it once you hit the “Send” button.

I’ll admit to using a phrase (back in my Junior High and High School days) that typically prompted a response somewhere between bewilderment and amazement.  The phrase was; “Due to a level of uncertainty and fear of deviating from the strict path of rectitude, I find that I am hesitant to articulate further on the subject at hand.”  Now, if you want, fell free to make that one your own, but all it’s really saying is that I don’t know and because I don’t want to be less than straight, I don’t think I’ll talk further.

Otherwise, it is perfectly fine to say “I have absolutely no idea”. Yep, that’s a valid answer and gives the sender exactly the information needed to keep looking; “I don’t know — but here’s three people who might” is even better and it might make you the big hero.

The delete key

Seriously: is this an email you are ever going to respond to? If it’s more than a week or two old, either answer it or delete it now.

If this strikes you as unsatisfactory or feels “mean and icky,” then ask yourself why, exactly, you’re still staring at this message instead of responding to it. Under what conditions, in your mind, will this email magically become more “answerable?”

So why, then, can’t you summon that needed answerability right now and just get rid of it? Yes, exactly. Oh, by the way, you may want to go back up to the trick dealing with the Question.  If it’s been hanging around your inbox for a couple of weeks, it’s quite possible that they’ve given up and/or found the answer themselves.  O.K., now it’s time to delete it, move on, and don’t look back.

Thanks,

Roger

This entry was posted on Tuesday, August 11th, 2009 at 5:01 pm and is filed under Managing Your Inbox. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.