How many times have you received a reminder email message from someone in your company, asking you to remember to listen to a webinar recording, attend an online training, or review a document that was sent out last week? And then you have to hunt for the webinar, online training link, or email-from-whatever-date-last-week?
If you’re about to write one of these emails, do the recipients a favor and provide them with all the information they need to do whatever you’re reminding them to do. This might mean forwarding an additional copy of a document or resharing a link. What if the original message contained a personalized link, like an employee survey? In that case you can work with the survey provider to re-send the email, or at least mention the date and subject line in your reminder email.
If you’re thinking of ignoring this advice because you don’t have time, consider the following formula:
[Time it takes you to find the information] x [Additional time it would take your recipients to find it, because they’re less familiar with the topic and also probably less motivated. Let’s say 3] x [Number of people receiving the message] = Amount of time you’ll save overall.