Lesson: How to Save the World from Email/ExerciseL1

Listening Exercise

Watch the video and complete the text according to what you can understand. Emails are easier to write than they are to respond to. You can write an email in seconds, link to an article or video with a simple copy and a paste and send. Now that poor person you wrote to has to scan his cluttered inbox, open your email, read it, decide how to respond, then respond. Emails often have open-ended questions that are hard to answer, and people often get "Cc"ed on emails they don't care about. This is all spiraling out of control and destroying your productivity. So we ask, do you wanna be part of the problem or part of the solution? Here are things you can start doing today, to make your emails better for everyone. Choose good subject lines that clearly give the topic of your email and maybe even tag with an action category. Write short emails, keep it to five sentences or less if you can, and make sure the reason for the email is clear at the top. No weird fonts or colors please. Don't give open-ended questions, but very specific-action options. Slash unnecessary "Ccs" and when forwarding emails, tighten up threads by deleting unimportant things. Oh, and stop replying just to say thanks. It might feel rude at first, but it's one less email to worry about reading. So unless you enjoy punishing people, join the emailcharter.