How to Have a Good Day: Harness the Power of Behavioral Science to Transform Your Working Life pdfdrive com

ACKNOWLEDGE, ACKNOWLEDGE, ACKNOWLEDGE
Avoid radio silence
If you value the sender, don’t sit on his or her email. People’s brains see social
exclusion and uncertainty as a threat, and you pose that threat in a minor way
every time you delay in responding to an email. The sender doesn’t know if
you’ve got it, read it, hated it, thought it foolish, ignored it, or deleted it. That’s
not good for your relationship. So, for people who matter to you:
Send a short, positive email response within twenty-four hours if possible.
The longer you leave it, the more you’ll feel obliged to write at greater
length. If you’re not ready to respond to their request, send a one-line
acknowledgment: “Thanks for your email. I look forward to getting into it in
detail.”
If you don’t even have time to send a one-liner, consider setting up an
automated email response explaining that you’re going through a busy period
and conveying your likely response time. While I was working on this book,
creating an auto-response that said “I’m busy but I’m not ignoring you”
allowed me to process my email when I was properly able to engage with it.
If you get an unmanageable amount of incoming mail from strangers or
casual acquaintances, draft some polite, standard email responses that you (or
an assistant) can quickly paste and send.
Deploying the positive no
A typical reason we leave email unanswered is that we don’t want to deal with
the issue that it presents, which is usually the need to dodge or challenge what
someone is proposing: “No, I’m afraid I won’t be able to meet your deadline” or
“No, I don’t think we should be going with the high-cost option.” Our heart
sinks as we think about writing back, so we put it off for another day. Here, it’s
helpful to use the “positive no” technique I described in 
Chapter 6
. A reminder

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of how this works:
Start with warmth. Say something appreciative, or at least thank the sender
for the email.
Your “yes.” Tell the other person about something that you’re positively
committed to—a goal, a priority, an appointment.
Your “no.” 
Then
explain that this positive commitment means you need to
decline the person’s request or suggestion.
End with warmth, by wishing the other person well with his or her endeavors.
We’re so used to starting with “I’m sorry” that the positive no often requires a
rewrite of your email before you send. If you catch yourself typing those words
at the beginning of an email, pause and consider whether there’s an opportunity
for a more positive opening.