Although your instinct may be to follow your salutation with a bit of small talk (How are you?), one writer from The Cut says that front-loading your email with a super-simple inquiry will signal to your boss that this query will only take five seconds to answer. Then include any clarifying information. By proposing a possible solution within the email, the whole exchange is a low-lift for the person in charge, and gets you the answer you need ASAP.
To make your correspondence skills even more effective, she also recommends swapping every “can” with “could you please,” and every “will” with “would you.” This will make your digital persona seem nice and patient—even if you needed her approval, like, yesterday. And finally, super urgent emails actually merit a starting statement instead of question, so tell your boss that it’s a big priority or that it’s time sensitive from the get-go. And there you have it: You just became the boss of your own email account.
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