To make my emails more effective, I do two things:
1) I use emojis
Most of the time I use these with bold fonts.
- ❗ for important things.
- ⚠️ for risks and issues.
- ⏹️ for actions.
2) I follow Kabir Sehgal's tips
From its Harvard Business Review (HBS) article "How to Write Email with Military Precision":
- Use keywords in subjects: start email subjects with words like ACTION, INFO, REQUEST, DECISION OR SIGN.
- Apply the BLUF principle (bottom line up front): answer at the beginning of the email body the five W’s: who, what, where, when, and why.
- Be economical: use active voice, shorter emails that don´t need scrolling, and links instead of attachments.
Examples:
These are reconstructions of real emails sent by me for a telecom project I led on 2023. I don't share the real emails for confidentiality purposes.
_________________________________
Subject: ACTION - Kickoff meeting
Body:
Hello, Jacob.
⏹️Please, let me know which timeslot works for your team to have the kickoff meeting next week.
- A pleasure to meet you. I´m Alejandro Hernández and I´ll be the project manager for the ACME Inc. - Marietta MS Teams implementation.
- ⚠️We can´t have the kickoff meeting this week as you wanted (Tony from our sales team notify me) as we need time to prepare.
- ❗Our available time slots are:
- Mon 11/06, 10-11am EST.
- Mon 11/06, 4-5pm EST.
- Wed 11/08, 10-11am EST.
- I'll send you the Microsoft Teams invite for the meeting so you can share it with your team.
- Please, only invite direct project stakeholders to the kickoff.
Project related: ACME Inc. - Marietta MS Teams implementation
Alejandro Hernández
Project Manager
_________________________________
Subject: INFO - SLA
Body:
Hello, Jacob.
❗Find our company's SLA attached.
- You requested it during kickoff.
Project related: ACME Inc. - Marietta MS Teams implementation
Alejandro Hernández
Project Manager
_________________________________
Subject: ACTION - Kickoff minutes
Body:
Hello, Jacob.
Please, find the kickoff meeting below and complete your tasks before next week's status meeting:
- We'll aim to port on 11/27 but the final porting date is defined by the porting authorities and the losing carrier.
- To complete this week:
- ⏹️Alejandro - Send SAK & LOA templates.
- ⏹️Jacob - Fill out / Send SAK, LOA and latest bill.
Project related: ACME Inc. - Marietta MS Teams implementation
Alejandro Hernández
Project Manager
_________________________________
Subject: INFO - Porting date
Body:
Hello, Jacob.
❗Porting has been approved for 11/27 at 10am EST. Coordinate as needed.
- This was the targeted date you requested.
- Thank you for providing the necessary documentation so fast.
- ⏹️Prepare your team to be out of phone service while porting is being completed in the morning of the porting date.
Project related: ACME Inc. - Marietta MS Teams implementation
Alejandro Hernández
Project Manager
_________________________________
Subject: INFO - Porting completed
Body:
Hello, Jacob.
❗Porting has been successfully completed.
- All tests have passed.
- We got confirmation from our porting specialist and from your team that everything is working as expected.
Project related: ACME Inc. - Marietta MS Teams implementation
Alejandro Hernández
Project Manager
_________________________________
Subject: ACTION - Satisfaction survey
Body:
Hello, Jacob.
⏹️Please, fill out this satisfaction survey.
- We use this for continuous improvement purposes.
Project related: ACME Inc. - Marietta MS Teams implementation
Alejandro Hernández
Project Manager
_________________________________
How I email effectively