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The Academic Revolution
The Academic Revolution
68. Boosting Email Efficiency: Streamlining Your Response Process (Part 2)
Let's face it - as academics, our inboxes can sometimes feel like a black hole sucking away precious time when we could be doing something more productive.
In this episode, we're tackling the challenges of efficient email responses. From crafting time-saving templates to conquering custom inquiries and mastering meeting scheduling, we've got you covered. By the end of this episode, you'll be armed with the tools to streamline your inbox, leaving you with more time for academic productivity, quality family moments, and perhaps a bit of well-deserved self-care.
Tune in and join the Academic Revolution!
00:00 Introduction and Importance of Email Management
01:31 Welcome to the Academic Revolution Podcast
02:15 Email Management Part Two: Handling Email Responses
02:40 Understanding the Challenges of Email Responses
05:28 Categorizing Types of Emails for Efficient Response
05:50 Creating Email Templates for Common Inquiries
10:22 Handling Custom Email Responses
11:30 Efficiently Scheduling Meetings
14:18 Recap and Conclusion
16:05 Vision Retreat Announcement and Closing Remarks
Resources mentioned in this episode:
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And a lot of times busy academic physicians like yourself. Feel like they have a lot of time spend on email and we talked a lot about how to clean up your email inbox. But what I found even more important is the time sunk into email responses. Meaning we procrastinate on things where we should respond to an email. And don't know quite how so. I want to attack that because that is really an important part of email management. So stay tuned for after the music and we will be right back. Well, welcome back to another episode of the academic revolution podcast. Hey, if you're near to this podcast, thank you so much for tuning in for listening. I so appreciated and it really makes my day. And I would love it. Actually, if after the show you could go write a review or rate the show. This will really help other academic physicians to see this material. And so they can get the help they need. For free, there's no charge. Which is awesome to just get more tips on how to be productive and succeed in academic. Medicine without sacrificing your personal life. So thank you so much for doing that. Brings a smile to my face, makes my day and help somebody else. So that's awesome. Today I want to talk about email management part two. And the last episode we spoke about how to get on top of your email inbox, how to declutter it, how to maintain it. If you have not listened to this episode, go back. It will really help you. But today I'll be the one to focus on how to handle email responses with efficiency and. Ease. Because what I've personally found in my own life, and I have the suspicion, this happens still more than just me. Is that sometimes we, we, they procrastinate on writing that email response. So the scenario is you open up your email. We'll go in at a designated time, high five to yo-yo. And now you read through these emails and there might be something popping up where you're like, oh, I need to respond to that. And perhaps you can respond to it right away. What we'll need some thought. But especially when it needs some specific thought that we tend to sometimes procrastinate on it and we say, well, I'm going to deal with that later. And number one, go back to the last episode and make sure that if you do that, you mark and star that email somehow. For a follow up and make sure you schedule time when you actually follow up. But I want to go most specifically and actually talk about. What's the part that makes. Responding to this email kind of difficult. And it's often because we either don't know what we want to say. It might be something like an, a scenario. Somebody asks for a favor. Or for our time or to meet with us. And we are like I kind of don't want to, but I should. And how am I going to say this elegantly? And sometimes what happens. In order to get out of that uncomfortable feeling, we just say, yeah, whatever. I'm just going to do it. Which is not great because then you gave into something that you actually didn't feel like you have the commitment, a time commitment. To do in the first place or feel like you really shouldn't be taking on this project. bUt it is also then a time by UBT should think about what do I want to respond in a proper way. And a lot of times it's easy to procrastinate need when we don't have a clear answer. So two scenarios happen. We either say yes to something we didn't want to say yes to, to just get it done with in the moment. Or be procrastinate to Nate on a response, which is also not helpful to you or them because we kind of don't know how to respond. So this episode will really help you with that. if you honestly look at. The type of emails you get, right? There are the type of emails you get that are very. Personalized. Concrete things. Let's say you're going back and forth with a collaborator and it really needs some finessing. And some thinking through, on your part, what they might need from you or what needs to be done next. That is a very unique custom thing. But a lot of times we get email inquiries. For things that are common themes, scheduling meetings, asking help for project and those type of things. I want to help you kind of categorize the type of emails you get and the responses you should be thinking through. To help you optimize that response time. Hope. That makes sense. So there is basically. Three types of scenarios. I think that happened well, where you want to think about. Automating that process for you. Number one is. For things that are more common responses or inquiries that you will get in your inbox. I suggest that you create an email template for that inquiry as a response from you. I gave you a couple of scenarios. So there might be let's say students that want to rotate on your service or in your lab. There might be people that want to come and, shadow. The, can I pick your brain because you're so awesome. Those type of scenarios. That often cause that procrastination or the. I will just do it because I want to get this email clear out of my inbox. thOse kinds of responses you can create templates for, to have handy and ready. Either as a word document and a Google drive. Somewhere on your computer or perhaps even automated in your email provider that you have an automated template that you can then quickly customize in the moment. So you don't have to think about a response over and over and over again. So this can go with something like this. Well Dr. Murphy, it's so awesome. I follow your work. And I just so interested. I wonder if I can pick your brain about XYZ M show you have gotten those emails and people often don't even have a clear understanding what they want because pick your brain is not a clear agenda. Let me just say that right from the beginning. And I know we want to be helpful. A lot of people. But a lot of times we try to be so helpful to everybody that we don't get anything done. And that's not helping anybody, including yourself. So you want to be really mindful. And for those kinds of scenarios, you could create a custom template and say, thank you so much for reaching out. I see that you're interested in my work. I suggest that you start by. Looking at articles XYZ. Let's say that's a research person who is interested in your lab. Give them something to do in a starting point. And then you might add, like, if you're interested, Hey after you had done this, come up with some specific question and then contact me again, that filters out the tire kickers. Right? That kind of was suck out your time, but don't do anything on their part. Or you could say you know, I would really love to help you, but my lab is already committed or I already have a lot of other commitments. In fact, a good line in order to honor, my prior commitments staff made. I unfortunately don't have the time to meet this time. If that ever changes, I will come back to you. No. What does that do in the moment? At both. Tell them with a clear seat now. You don't have time. For a meeting to have your brain picked. And it will also make very clear if that ever changes. I will get back to your. That they cannot just bounce the ball back and forth, but that you kind of close the door and honestly, if you ever feel like, oh, I really want to meet with this person. Chances are that pro probably not happen very often. But that you could reach out. So think through the scenarios you have so meetings pick your brain. Can we go for coffee? Those are kind of common things. And there might be of course, scenarios where you want to say yes to some of those things. Maybe there's a fellow who was interested in your lab and you want to meet with them. Awesome go and do that. And even for those scenarios, you can create responses. So just think about common inquiry risks you specifically get, and then create some email responses around them, especially for the things where you want to say no. But I having a hard time doing so in a moment, and then you kind of having the right as block. Blinking cursor in front of you and you don't know what to say. So it's very helpful to craft some well-written responses. Ahead of time when you're not emotionally involved or under time pressure. That you then kind of kick out in the moment when you get these things and about also save you a lot of time. Instead of writing the same type of response over and over and over again. And you can use those four years and tweak them over time. So super helpful. Great yourself. A bunch of say no email templates and maybe also some, Hey, that's awesome. Let's meet email templates. That is number one. Number two. There will be scenarios where we really require a customer response. And you will probably need more time and thought to respond to emails. And these are the scenarios I mentioned earlier. Maybe there are specific issues. In your department or division, maybe issues between collaborators specific data. They need. Manuscript bouncing back and forth. It was kind of things. Well, though, we'll should we, they go on your designated time. And priority list where you will handle those responses. Like we talked in the last episode. There will be times when you go through your email and you're like, oh yeah, I need to flag that. That will definitely require my personal follow up within 24, 48 hours. And I will set some time aside to respond. To that. Either during another designated email time or if it really needs more. Time and thought. You will have to just put that on your, to do, or I like to say priority list and schedule time when you handle this specific request. The third one. Is a very common request is scheduling meetings. I highly recommend that you bounce that to an admin. If you can. And set some real boundaries around that. I think I did a whole CRA is back. I will put this show in the show notes, which episodes those are, but about meetings and scheduling meetings. But he is in a nutshell, but I think is important. If you can avoid it, don't schedule meetings yourself and certainly don't go back and forth numerous times with finding a convenient time. You can propose some times you can ask them to propose some times and then just pick something. Or you can use automated tools. I use something called Calendly. That's spelled C a L E. N D L Y I put it in the show notes as well. That's a tool that automatically Lee scheduled meetings, basically people say, Hey, I want to meet with you for this kind of purpose. Then I would send them a link. To my calendar specifically designed for. A specific type of meeting. Based on duration. And when I want to have that type of meeting, let's say it's a. It's either a student or a postdoc who's interested or things like that. And then I would give them that link and then they can schedule based on my availability that I predetermined. When that meeting should take place and then pick a time. And that cuts out all the back and forth. And you can determine a location physically, like let's say your office or somewhere. Or it could be a zoom and you can set that up automatically as well. It's a very there's a free version. There's a very inexpensive version. Again, this is one of the things you should check with your it department. If you cannot use those kinds of tools because your university says no. Then you have to do it either yourself or a strongly recommend, like an admin should be able to schedule meetings and then you'll give the admin sometimes and say, I only meet with people. On these days in this timeframe, so that your calendar doesn't get cluttered with meetings all over the place and that you have fragmented time. That he can do nothing with so really important. That's what a lot of people get stuck with as well is fragmented time. And then having no protected time to do any of their research or. Being suddenly scheduled for multiple things all at once, such as clinic and a meeting or something. You want to avoid that at all costs and really meetings. It's a huge request in your inbox. So be mindful of that and have a process in place that works for you to cut down on time and collateral. So chill quickly, wake up. How to handle. Email responses with ease. Number one, create templates for common inquiries that you get. So that you have them at hand and can more quickly. And appropriately respond in the way that you would like. Number two, make sure for custom responses that you designate time. Either doing email Skype. Like is email. Management times or as a specific project on your calendar and number three, scheduling meetings, make sure you automate that. Offload that to an admin. Or have very strict guidelines for yourself. If you have to manage it yourself, but really meetings is something you should get help with because that is an absolute time sink. So hopefully this helps you to just kind of think about the responses. The goal here again is to get you out of email jail fast, right? You want to limit your time in email because usually there is very little to no productivity to behalf you. Email is an organized system. For other people's inquiries and requests on your time. And that's it. So it's usually other people's inquiries that come to you via email and you'll want to manage it highly, efficiently to save time and actually focused on what is more important. That is your academic productivity, your family, your health, your patients, and not email inbox management. So I hope this served you again. Shoot me an email. If this was helpful in you can send an email into INGAA at Ingle Hoffman. man.com. If you want to check more. Thank you for leaving a review and rate the show and also shared with other people. And again, remember, there is a vision retreat coming up January 26. So coming up in just a couple of weeks here, where you can partake and participate in a wonderful retreat virtually. That takes you through a process to craft your vision for the next three to five years, to make sure that is aligned with your values. And then from there set goals, long-term goals as well as the goals for 2024. And then we chunk it down in quarters month, weeks, and so forth. You will love it at. It will accelerate your productivity. I go through this process every single year. Quarter or week, et cetera. Now I want you to be able to do that too. I will put the link for registration in the show notes. We'll have to see you there January 26. Take care, stay well and have a wonderful, blessed new year. Bye now.