Sometimes I work with clients for a number of weeks to help them get complex processes in place. Other times I just make a quick recommendation to help them reclaim a few minutes here and there which can add up to a lot of hours over the year and results in reduced stress levels.  Something that takes 10 minutes to implement but makes you smile every time you use it is a win for me… 

So I’d like to challenge you to create a quick ‘canned response’ email. Think of the email you write the most. In my case it is the ‘why don’t we jump onto zoom to talk about it’ email. It requires me to share my zoom link and instead of having to copy it out of Zoom each time I hit 3 buttons and the email is gone. 

For you it might be a ‘I’d love to talk about this further please book a call’ email with a link to your online booking system. Or a ‘thanks but no thanks’ email for people who want to collaborate but aren’t a great fit’ or a ‘I don’t seem to have received the payment for my invoice would you please check you have paid it!’ email. 

Whatever it is, creating just that one template can save time. The keen beans among you can create more if you want but under the 80:20 rule you really only need a handful of these emails to cover the majority of standard responses. 

I’ve covered how you create a standard response in both Gmail and Outlook in the videos below. Sorry Mac users, until someone donates me an old one to do demos on you’ll have to follow the directions I’ve linked here which show you how you can do similar on MacMail. 

I hope this makes your week a tiny bit more SORTED!