91. Better Morning Routines + Email Boundary Setting

Transcript – Episode 91: Better Morning Routines + Email Boundary Setting

Joe:
There are a handful of morning routines that research suggests have a notable impact on our health and happiness. Plus, we explore a number of the email responses, auto-replies, rules, and disclaimers that have become popular of late, and whether they really do help you boss better. That’s what’s ahead now, on Boss Better Now.

Suzanne:
You’re listening to Boss Better Now. The show is sponsored by Joe Mull and Associates. Now here’s your host – speaker, and author, Joe Mull.

Joe:
Happy New Year, BossHeroes. Welcome back to the show. Here’s hoping that you enjoyed a spectacular holiday season and are stepping into 2023 with energy and vigor and a feeling of renewal at the start of a new year. Today marks the two-year anniversary of the launch of this podcast. Hooray. I should be doing those sound effects that I have here. Here we go. One more time. Hooray.

Joe:
That might have been a bit much, but we’re excited. You know, it’s hard to believe that I’ve been doing this here for two years and that you’ve been joining us for nearly that long. Or if you’re new to the show, then we’re so glad you found us along the way, and here’s hoping that you find our show, a regular dose of advice, humor, and encouragement as that’s what we aspire to deliver around here. And so, with that, let me please welcome back to the show, executive coach, HR advisor, and parasailer, Suzanne Malausky. Hello, my friend.

Suzanne:
<Laugh>. Well, hello. Hello Joe, and everyone else out there. Great to be back. It’s been a while.

Joe:
How has the parasailing been going?

Suzanne:
Oh, well, you know, I had to give that up <laugh>, you know, it might, it. Yeah. My husband ran a parasailing business back in the day, as we say, and he regals people with his stories of the crashes and near misses of, of that sport. So, I avoid it. Not about that.

Joe:
I see. (Suzanne: Nope.) Yeah. And, and parasailing is really not big in Western Pennsylvania.

Suzanne:
<Laugh>, right. The opportunity. And one of the, they don’t have it on one of the three rivers here in Pittsburgh. I, I can’t believe it. But yeah. So,

Joe:
No, this is kayaking only really? Or, or, or, that’s right. Motorboating. That’s right. <Laugh>. Well, I am so glad that we are kicking off the new year with what feels like a really relevant topic for a New Year’s conversation. About better morning routines. We came across an article a couple weeks ago that I flagged and set aside about the six morning routines that will make you happier, healthier, and more productive. This author went and, and kind of compiled in one place many of the morning habits and routines that the most successful people point to as being critical to getting the most out of their day and feeling their best over the course of a day. And that certainly is something that is relevant and useful, I would think, to our BossHeroes listening. And so, we’re gonna share what this author identifies as the six morning routines.

Joe:
And I don’t think that they’re suggesting that all six of them fit into the same morning. I mean, maybe you could do that mm-hmm. <Affirmative>. but that in general, these are six habits that tend to show up in the mix among those who are most successful. So, I’m gonna rattle these off, Suzanne, and then we’ll talk a little bit about them. Okay? Okay. Number one is exercise and energy. Right? The idea is simple. When you get up, you go and exercise. You do it before eating breakfast or reading your phone or checking emails, anything like that as a way to wake you up and jumpstart your day. So that was number one. Number two, meditation, and stillness. So instead of jumpstarting your day with exercise, some people jumpstart their day with reflection. And, and I think meditation takes a lot of different kinds of forms in this day and age.

Joe:
And there are a lot of different ways to go about it, but it seems to be, it appears to be a regular presence in the lives of those who really are getting a lot done. Number three, get to work. Some say that the key to productivity is starting the work, right? Where you actually roll out of bed and go right to work. And that your first break for the day is when you shower, when you eat, or when you shave and kind of do the other normal morning routine things. There are a lot of folks out there who, who do this. And I, I have a very good friend. He gets up at four o’clock every morning and he works for two hours right away, and then he exercises, and then he eats, and then he goes about other things, and he, he loves it.

Joe:
Number four, learning first. This is setting time aside to engage in reading or personal development. You know, going to a book, taking that time to feed the brain, first and foremost. I have another colleague who this is the first hour of her day. It’s reading always. Number five, plan your day where you actually sit down, and you go through your priorities for the day. Where are there gonna be gaps in your schedule? Where might you expect some complications? What are the must-dos and want-to-dos by the time you’re done for the day? And doing this kind of planning first thing in the morning can be a good way to prime your day for success. And then finally, number six, make your bed. Making your bed, brushing your teeth, showering, shaving, all those things you do in the morning are little tasks that can put you in a good mood and good form for the rest of the day.

Joe:
This was actually a book written by Admiral William McRaven. And he argues that even if you have a miserable day, when you come home to a bed that is made, it gives you encouragement and that, you know, sets you up to believe that tomorrow will be better. So those are the six. Suzanne, exercise and energy, meditation, and stillness. Get to work learning first, plan your day and make your bed. So where do you wanna start, my friend? Is there, is there some aspect of these that is important to you or that you are inspired to try to consider?

Suzanne:
Yeah, I love, I love that he talked about experimentation. Yeah. I, because I was thinking, gosh, I think I’ve tried all or most of these there. I have a couple favorites, which, which I’ll share. But, you know, there are seasons in our life, either, maybe in the summertime it makes more sense for you to get up an exercise that, you know, yeah, the sun’s up, you can up with the sun and go take a walk or do your, your routine, whatever that might be. But in the wintertime, maybe it is a little more where you wanna read or meditate, right? Because going outside doesn’t feel so good. I can tell you number one, the exercise and energy is not my jam. Okay. As much as I try, my husband is getting up in the morning, he works out almost every morning, and for a long time every night, like, if he goes, I go, okay, I’m going to a bed with the intent of getting up in the morning and exercising. Yeah. And it doesn’t happen, Uh huh. I mean, I try, but it makes me half sick. Like, ugh. My body’s like, no, no. 

Joe:
You’re not ready for that.

Suzanne:
Nope. My, I’m, I exercise at night. That’s when my energy is highest. You know? So maybe it’s your body rhythms we have to listen to too. Yeah. I’ll skip to number six. Absolutely. We’re bedmakers, last one out has to make the bed. So, there’s a little bit of a motivation to get up so that somebody else has to make the bed. Right? <laugh>. So, I love coming home and it’s done, and it’s neat and you do feel like you’ve at least accomplished something. And it prevents me from going back to bed, which I think is what I would do if I did the meditation and… Yeah. You know that kind of thing. But I’m a planner and I think I love to get up and have that routine. I love the idea of a routine because it’s something you begin to look forward to. It’s something you don’t have to think about. It becomes rote. Yeah. So, it’s my morning coffee and I’m more of the planner. Yeah. So, I think about what’s coming, what’s making me nervous, or what am I excited about, what can I commit to, what do I need to de-commit to, like, you know, this isn’t the day for that. Let’s see if we can, let’s bump this, chop the schedule a little bit so that, that gets me going, kind of primes the pump. So, I think I think about my morning. Not too fast. Not too slow. Like, get up, get planful and start.

Joe:
It’s Goldilocks. It’s gotta be just right!

Suzanne:
Like my oatmeal. Yeah. Not too hot, not too cold.

Joe:
<Laugh> awesome. Okay. All right. You, that gives us a, a glimpse, you know? Yeah. I’ve, I’ve had a morning routine for years, but this is so timely for me because I was just having a conversation about how I need to reinvent my morning routine. I was at a conference over the weekend and was struck by how much conversation was focused on work-life balance and health and wellness. Mm-Hmm. <affirmative> in this Post-Covid world, and the time and attention that busy professionals are now putting into thinking about this, it feels to me like it’s more than ever before. And so, I, I ended up in, in a really interesting conversation about, you know, what are your values and priorities? If, if you think about your work and your family, and your health, how do you rank those? How, how do you discern what’s most important?

Joe:
And, you know, we vote with our feet and with our time, and I kind of made me step back and say, you know, if I’m being honest, mine would go work, family, health, (Suzanne: uh oh.) And that feels out of whack to me, and it feels out of whack to me because I don’t want work to be my number one priority. It feels to me like the right recipe is health, family, work, right? Because everything flows through our health. And, you know, and maybe it’s not a ranking of a 1, 2, 3, maybe it’s just that sort of perfect Venn diagram, right? Where all three of those circles are the same size, and when they overlap in the middle, you get balance. But totally all of that to say, I, I feel like I need to reinvent my morning routine. And I’ve been thinking about the best way to do that.

Joe:
Because I waffle on the morning exercise, some mornings I can get up and go exercise, and other mornings it feels like the most, the, the biggest mountain to climb that there possibly could be. Yes. Right? Yes. Right. But here was a big takeaway, for me, from something that I heard somebody else at this conference say, which was — a morning routine can’t be an obligation. Right? It needs to be something you look forward to and it needs to be something that you anchor yourself in. And so, for that reason, for most people, it should not be complex. It, you know, for most people it shouldn’t be 30 minutes of this and then an hour of that, and then 45 minutes of this. Because it’s not always possible to stick to a morning routine if they take up a lot of space like that.

Joe:
And I think that’s where I get, right, right. Like in my own head about it, well, I should exercise for this long and I should, you know, meditate for this long. And so, I, what I’m working on right now is how do I pick just a couple of these things mm-hmm. <Affirmative> and put them into smaller pieces. You know, meditation doesn’t need to be 30 minutes in a dark room going “hum”. You know, it could be just taking five minutes to center yourself and to be thoughtful about your intention for the day, right?  And to be thoughtful about, and I think about this a lot, just taking time in the morning to think about “how do I wanna show up in the world?” “How do I wanna show up as a communicator, as a husband, as a father, as a neighbor, as a business owner as a, as a professional speaker, as a, a member of a community. Like how do I just, how do I wanna show up? What do I want my demeanor to be like and my energy to be like and what do I want people to experience when they interact with me?” We really can do some profound things in the world. I think if we take a moment to think about those kinds of things in the morning because they fuel us, just like exercise and, just like planning your day.

Suzanne:
I love that notion about, it’s not about what we want to accomplish, it’s what we want to feel in the accomplishment Right? Of it. So, if I think I wanna, I’m reaching for a sense of calm. What do I need to do to do that? I’m reaching for renewed energy. You know what, what, I love that idea, Joe. It’s not about the things, it’s about the feelings or the “how we’re showing up or the energy we’re giving out.” So, I wanna hear what you end up… you land on that.

Joe:
Yeah. It’s kind of a work in progress right now. And I’m, I’m giving myself permission to do that and almost to like pilot a morning routine for a week and then Yeah. Let’s, let’s pilot, you know, changes to it <laugh>. Yeah. And it’s funny cuz I expected to see journaling on this list. Yeah. And it wasn’t there. And I guess I would put it in the category of meditation and stillness cuz it is a, a form of reflection.

Joe:
<Affirmative>. But we all know a lot of folks I think who, who are committed to that habit, to that routine Yes. As a way to, to process what happens the day before mm-hmm. To think about just like we said, who, who we want to be and how we want to show up. That kind of a habit we know can be powerful as well.

Suzanne:
Exactly. The other things are the daily, either it’s devotional or daily inspirations. Mm-Hmm. <affirmative>, I do have a book by my bed. Sometimes I read it before bed sometimes when I get up in the morning. And it’s, it’s called Simple Abundance. And it’s really something that has fueled my point of view. So, if I need to reset my attitude, adjust, you know, the feelings that I’m having about a certain thing, I go to that and it gives me, you know, I can just pick the day that it is. Yeah. And I go to that page and, you know, there’s some inspiration or good feels in there that really helps me too. So, it’s always Simple Abundance, always right

Joe:
There. Yeah. We’ll, Simple Abundance. We’ll link to that in the transcript. That way if people wanna go check that out, they can, they can find that. (Suzanne: I highly recommend it.) You know, if I’m, if I’m being honest, I have to acknowledge, and I’m gonna say this out loud cuz I think it’s a reality for so many people who are listening to this, that my ability to define and customize a morning routine that feels perfect for me feels limited by the young kids that live in my house. <Laugh> <laugh> and, and the, the, the wake-up times and the breakfast and the dog needs fed and don’t fight. And why aren’t you wearing your clothes yet? And what do you mean you still have homework to finish? You know, all the kinds of stuff that we get caught up into when we have kids in the house. And I know that not everybody has kids, but I’m working around that. And so yeah, maybe what it is, is I can still find a morning routine that’s perfect for me. Right. In those circumstances that accounts for that reality and wanting to be present with them in the morning and wanting to be, be helpful at getting them ready and out the door as well.

Suzanne:
And so many of our listeners have differing the scenarios like that in different ones. You know, other, maybe they’re caring for people, they have the dog to walk. Yes. Maybe they had to get up and do an hour-and-a-half commute. So, their morning routine is what they do in the car. The car, right? Yeah. Or, you know, not all of ’em have the luxury that some people might have of being at home, which feels like the luxury. But you know, it’s sometimes for me it’s just getting out of my office. Yeah. You know? Oh, you know, I, I did my routine, but did I take a shower? Oh, I better do that at, I’m gonna work that in at 10 <laugh>. Yeah. Yeah. Wait, I shouldn’t have said that out loud. But anyway. Yeah.

Joe:
I mean, hey, it works for you.

Suzanne:
That’s right. You still have to plan it and, and be mindful and is it working for you? And I love what you said, it shouldn’t be out of obligation or a burden. It’s something that you’re doing that feels good, that fills you up or, you know, gets you set for what’s next.

Joe:
Absolutely. Yeah. Well, I’m calling all BossHeroes. I would love to hear about your morning routines and especially those of you who have kids, and you know, who like to get to work early. Cuz, I like to get to work early. How are you getting all this stuff in? Like, if you have nailed this morning routine or, or nothing else, you have created a morning routine, like we said, that, that you can anchor yourself to that that centers you for the day. And that doesn’t take a ton of time. Gosh. I would love to hear about that. So, you can email the show at bossbetternow@gmail.com. That’s bossbetternow@gmail.com. Tell me about your morning routine. Help me out, friends. I got a lot of craziness coming up here in 2023, so I gotta I gotta figure this out and I gotta get this right and I sure could use your help. So, bossbetternow@gmail.com.

Joe:
All right, friends, that brings us to the first Camaraderie Question of the Week for 2023. We know that bosses build camaraderie on teams by making it easier for people to find things in common with each other at work. That’s why here on the show every week we give you a question you can use at meetings to facilitate connection and build camaraderie. So, our question today, Suzanne, what is something new that you would like to learn to do in 2023? What say you?

Suzanne:
It’s such a timely question because it was only a few days ago when I’m thinking, okay, Christmas is behind us. We’ve got things to accomplish in the new year. What, what am I gonna do this winter? And I am going, or what I want to learn to do better is creative writing. So, I’m looking for a class that gets me out of the house. So, I’m thinking community college, go to an evening class and do creative writing. I’ve written in a lot of different ways for different audiences, for different reasons, and I wanna sharpen that tool more. I wanna be better at writing. So, I think I’ll go take a creative writing class and see, see what comes out of that. So, I’m super excited.

Joe:
That really resonates with me because I got to do that last year. Yeah. So, when I was writing Employalty, I really leaned into storytelling with okay. Many of the folks that I interviewed for the book, and you’ve seen the book and it’s, yes, each chapter really starts off with a, a kind of colorful story. And I had so much fun thinking about what, what’s the scene that I want? What’s the picture I want to paint? What’s the scene? If there’s, if I’m watching a play and I’m reading the script, what does it look like? And, you know, being able to find creative ways to tell those stories. It’s, it does, it activates your brain in a different kind of way than almost any other medium. Yeah.

Suzanne:
I think it feels like exercise and, and yeah, you, you, I admire the way you write. I mean, you find the right words and the cadence that you have is, (Joe: oh, thank you,) is easy. Right? It’s easy to read what you write and it’s also good stuff. And so, did you take a class to do that? Or is it more you studied it and then applied some things?

Joe:
Ah, you know,

Suzanne:
Find a formula or what did you do?

Joe:
I have taken a lot of classes in things, and I have done a lot of coaching and things, but I have never taken outside of, you know, regular secondary education and stuff. Right. (Suzanne: School.) I’ve never taken a writing class. So, I think, you know, there are some things that some people just are, have a knack for and maybe that’s something I have a knack for. I enjoy good writing and good storytelling. I think it’s a derivative of speaking. Yes. And I think my background in theater has something to do with it. Yes. It just kind of all goes in the, in the hopper together, and the mix results in it that it kind of comes out halfway good. You know? All right… Good <laugh>

Suzanne:
Come out, comes out okay. Yeah. Well, I bet you had good, I bet you had good <laugh>. I can’t think of the words we’re talking about English. Nothing comes out of my mouth. <Laugh>. I bet you had really good teachers in grammar school and… Yeah. You know, it sounds like it feels this like you have a really good foundation from putting, for putting structure together in sentences. And

Joe:
I think maybe I point to the good education to my mom and to my grand. My grandmother was a novelist and a poet, and my mom loved reading and kind of instilled that in us. So, I’ve been a voracious reader that helps for years. And so, I think that helps too. Absolutely. Good. Good stuff. Awesome.

Suzanne:
Yay. How about you? What are you gonna learn? 

Joe:
Oh, I had a tough time thinking about this. What’s something new you would like to learn to do in 2023? And I don’t know if this is learned to do or need to do, but I need to slow down.

Joe:
I need to learn to slow down. I need to learn to slow down in so many aspects of my life. So, I’m about to turn 46 and I am very aware that at the end of almost every workday, I come home feeling like I’ve run a marathon. Not, not physically tired, but just I go to work and it’s go, go, go, go, go, go, go and hustle, hustle, hustle. And it’s like that all day. And then you, I, and then I jump in the truck and I race home in time to make it for a meal or to take a, a kid to practice or whatever’s going on. And it’s, I get through the door and it’s just like, it is just the total frenetic energy constantly. And you know, you can only do that for so long before it starts to take a toll on your heart and on your central nervous system and your body. And, you know, this applies to how I walk, how I drive, how I think. I’m just always in a hurry mm-hmm. <Affirmative>. And so, this feels to me like something that I need to get a handle on that I need to learn how to slow like it down. Any tips

Suzanne:
You want me to look up the community college classes and see if there’s something?

Joe:
<Laugh>, How to calm the hell down, how to that? Yeah. For, for speaker, speakers, authors, and entrepreneurs. <Laugh>, but well, so this is tied to this conversation that we just had about morning routines. Yeah. So that’s one way that I, I am making space to get in some of the things that will be better. The second thing I’m gonna try to do is even more intentional with time blocking on my calendar. Mm-Hmm. <affirmative> and, and actually blocking time on my calendar for reflection for transitioning to that come-home mindset. Building in more time to get to the next thing. Right. So, I’m not rushing to the airport or rushing to the kids’ practice just to be able to slow down. So, I’m working on it.

Suzanne:
Well, that’s great. It reminds me, I had a meeting this morning with some clients and they’re transitioning leadership and so the new leader that’s transitioning in, and you’re our listeners might appreciate this, is as you’re taking on a larger leadership role, there has to be time to think forward.

Joe:
Yes.

Suzanne:
And you as a leader of a business, Joe, need the time to think, okay, what’s coming around the corner? How am I preparing for next? Yeah. And there’s time and energy that goes into that. But that is a thought. Yeah. Like a reflective kind of activity, but maybe that’s something you can build in Yeah. To sit and think about the future. Not to get yourself all frenetic about it but be planful and mindful about what’s coming. So cuz we find ourselves reacting to everything all the time. Yep. instead of getting ahead of it. And also too, for people who are so fast-paced, is to consider the impact it has on others around you.

Joe:
Yeah.

Suzanne:
Right. What shadow are you leaving for? Like, does everybody else now feel like they have to, you know, be driving it in overdrive all the time Yeah. And running to the next meeting because you’re creating a shadow for those around you. So that’s another reason to really concentrate on that or pay attention or monitor your speed.

Joe:
Yeah. I think too that it’s not always frantic because it, it’s funny, Jamie, our producer on the show who works on my team has often said how much she appreciates how kind of common, even-keeled I am when things don’t go right. Right. Or when mm-hmm. <Affirmative> when people maybe bring us a, challenge, or a problem that we didn’t expect. Yes. but you’re right in that sort of being always wound tight and trying to Right. To be efficient and get things done quickly does Yep. Does sort of bleed into the other people around you.

Suzanne:
Yep. Absolutely. Yeah. No, I’ve seen you in crisis mode. You’re very, very calm <laugh>. Absolutely. Alright. I’m switching into problem-solving mode now. Right. And you, you get it down to matter of fact. So yes. You don’t, you don’t your hair’s not on fire.

Joe:
No. No Uh uh, but I, yeah. But I appreciate the conversation and, and that’s one of those other things where, hey, if, if anybody listening to this used to be like I am now and you’ve kind of moved into a better space with it, well then fire off your thoughts, you’re helping, your feedback as well at bossbetternow@gmail.com. And that’s the Camaraderie Question of the Week.

Joe:
All right folks. You heard me mention it a short time ago, and if you listen to our last two episodes of the podcast, you know that the big news is my new book, Employalty – How to Ignite Commitment and Keep Top Talent in the New Age of Work is now available for pre-order, it will be released on May 9th. And we’re super excited about the framework that the simple framework that this book is introducing in the world for what it takes to keep dedicated employees, find people who will become dedicated employees, and then put the kind of scaffolding in place that activates their commitment. And we’ve done something really cool with this. We’ve created a book club kit for the book. And so, if you pre-order 10 copies or more and you email us proof of purchase, we’re gonna send you a free book club kit that you can use in your organization.

Joe:
It has a video and a discussion guide and an implementation checklist, some really great resources for you to apply the learning where you work. So just go to any online retailer and you can pre-order the book. And then once you’ve pre-ordered the book, just shoot us an email at hello@joemull.com with that proof of purchase. Anything we’ll do, we’re not being sticklers about this, just a screenshot of your, your seat or anything like that. Show us that you ordered the book. A couple of copies for your team and we will get you that book club kit. Again, the book is called “EMP Loyalty” E M P L O Y A L T Y or just search my name Joe Mull pre-order those copies, and email us at hello@joemull.com and we’ll get you a free book club kit.

Joe:
And now Suzanne. Yeah, we’re gonna wrap up the show today by talking a little bit about email boundary settings.

Joe:
So there have been, in recent years at least, I’ve seen a lot of different kinds of language and disclaimers and tactics that have been used to maybe make email less impactful in our work lives cuz we know it takes up so much time and energy. And Jamie, our producer, passed along an article to me that I think is really interesting and I obviously said it to you. The headline of the article says life would be better if we added this line to every email. And I will give you the too long didn’t read version, but basically, it was written from a busy executive who says that she needs her team to understand that she is too, too busy to read lengthy emails and the volume of email that she gets is just too significant to be able to spend significant, I use significant twice in a sentence.

Suzanne:
It’s a good word. It’s okay.

Joe:
Okay. A lot, a lot of time <laugh> reading emails. And so, what she does is at the bottom of her emails, her outbound emails, it says, please don’t write me a novel, I won’t read it. And she asked people to instead write in the subject line what this is about. And so, the article was advocating for this practice, and I gotta tell you, I’m not so sure. So, I wanted to see what your thoughts were about this, and I wanted us to talk about some of the other ways that people are boundary-setting around email. So, what do you think? Would you put, please don’t write me a novel at the bottom of your emails?

Suzanne:
No sir, I would not. So, what I agree with is boundaries. I love the idea. Yes. Every good email etiquette would say, or the good use of email as we could say it now, is put the subject line so that they can find it, they can search it. Yeah. They know what to expect and… Absolutely. Tell ’em what you’re gonna tell ’em at the beginning of the email. Here’s what I’m looking for, this is just for information review, it will need your reply. And then that, that’s where it kind of stops for me in, in the advice that Leah has put together because in this case she’s talking about, you know, a chief executive officer, I believe. So, if, if that leader wants to kind of give their team guidance on expectations on the use of email, that’s great. Should, but it should come in a form of an email itself.

Suzanne:
Hey folks, in order for all of us… Because it’s not just about me, right? For all of us to be more efficient, here’s how I’d like to see us use email, right? So, you can set up those parameters for your team. If there’s something that takes more than a hundred words, let’s schedule a meeting or attach a document Yes. Or always do this, always do that. You can absolutely set up those protocols for your team. But to think that you can now manage the rest of the population based on a directive at the end of an email, I find it off-putting a little bit too blunt as it says. That probably would be. And your audience, you, anytime you write an email, any communication, we learn this. And, you know, communication 101 is know your audience.

Suzanne:
And you can think everything from personalities to the reason for your email. Some people need more context, more information than just a two-liner. Yes. I, if it’s my clients or a vendor, you better believe I’m adding in the, the niceties, make sure there’s a sense of greeting and politeness. Yes. so, showing that I have either empathy, or I know them or something personal to keep a connection there. So, I get the point, and I think it’s okay for the teams, but you, you’ve gotta look at each situation when you’re writing emails, any communication deserves the, that that consideration. And one more thing with Slack or your instant messaging. Yes. I, you know, have clients that use it beautifully or just getting to know it. So, people, I think companies are all over the spectrum of maturity and experimentation with Slack, but I have had the occasion to coach people even on their Slack language mm-hmm. So, to direct and to point, and I think she, I think she referenced something about being popular. Well, I don’t care what’s popular, there’s still what’s appropriate that needs to be considered. So, you know, I’ve caught myself being too short in my responses, but I’m, I rationalize by thinking, well, they know me.

Joe:
Yes.

Suzanne:
Oh, they’ll understand how to interpret it, but they don’t always. So, it takes, it’s worth the time and effort to put your message out there

Joe:
Purposely. We did kind of assign the worst possible tone to the emails that we get. Right. We don’t give, necessarily give people the benefit of the doubt. Right. I agree with everything that you’ve just shared. I would not put this at the bottom of my emails either though. I do, I do sympathize with the busy leader Yes. Who gets a ton of email. I, I don’t even get the volume of email that some folks out there in the world do, but even the amount that I get it, it can really just take over your day, your week. It, and it can be hard to, to manage. I think for me, one of my problems with this is that it, there is something that feels dismissive and almost insulting about referring to their message as a novel. Please don’t write me a novel.

Joe:
Right. There’s just, it just feels dismissive in terms, the characterization of their prose in that way. I, I think that if you want to have some kind of device or note that asks people in diplomatic, in a diplomatic way to get to the point , it’s, you can do it as long as you’re a leader who is earning trust in other ways and building relationships in other ways if this is someone who is at the top of the ivory tower and never interacts with the little people on the ground, this is just another way that you ostracize people and put distance between yourself as a leader and people mm-hmm. But if you’re out there in the field and you’re, you’re building relationships and, and you’re working to in other ways to help people feel cared about and to make yourself warm and approachable and accessible then, then setting some boundaries in this week way can be possible.

Joe:
I think there’s better language that we can choose. And because you know how much I love giving scripts and specific language on this show, Suzanne, I was thinking about how would I do this. Yes. Right. What would, what would I say? Yes. And I think I would probably, I don’t, I don’t have it nailed down yet, by the way. I, I didn’t have time to, to kind of exactly get it perfect before we started recording our show today. But I think it would be something like I will be better able to digest and react to your email if you give me the headline. I think it would be something like that we talked before in an earlier episode about gimme the headline and I, I think you can ask people to be concise mm-hmm. <Affirmative> and frame it in how that benefits them. Yes. Without making it all about, well, I’m so busy, so don’t write me a novel. That feels insulting versus saying, hey, listen, I, I care about what you have to say and I’m gonna be able to, to get to it in whatever that means more quickly and more effectively. If you can be concise or if you can give me the headline because I don’t wanna miss anything. And I think that that in and of itself is a much better way to do this.

Suzanne:
Yeah. Because I, I love what you said. It, it, it’s off-putting in the sense that it also makes me feel like I couldn’t even approach you in a conversation that’s, if that’s right. I saw you in the hall. It, it kind of puts a space between you and the things that people want to say to you.

Joe:
It’s sending the message that that person is a burden.

Suzanne:
Right. And what you have to say isn’t important to me, even though I may have asked for it, which is Yes. A juxtaposition here. So yeah, I think a leader has the opportunity to set up what those boundaries are, but it’s for all of us. Yes. So, I think emails should be used this way in order for all of us to be efficient and be able to respond and not get lost. You know, it could be the same thing as a protocol. If, if a conversation is taking more than three emails, let’s jump on a call.

Joe:
Right.

Suzanne:
Right. Or let’s schedule a meeting. Some things like that. I, I just general for all of us, not just about the leader. If you, if you’re a servant leader, if you believe in supporting and uplifting your people, then there, there are better ways of doing this.

Joe:
Yes. Yes. Well, we’re talking about email boundaries and I know that you have seen a lot of different kinds of tags at the end of emails or disclaimers or policies that have sort of sprung up in recent years to, to make email a more manageable part of our lives or to ensure that email doesn’t create suffering on the other end because people feel like they have to respond to it or, or you know, there’s a lot of that that we’ve talked about previously here on the show and that is kind of part of our quest for a better employee experience. So, what are some other examples, Suzanne, that you’ve seen out there of devices or disclaimers that people have used in email or maybe it’s policies that companies have embraced about email to make email a less harmful presence in our lives?

Suzanne:
It’s funny when you said other taglines at the bottom the one that first one came to mind is, please don’t print this email. We, we were, you know, “save the environment.” Yeah. Yep.

Joe:
That way those are pretty common. Yep.

Suzanne:
Yeah. I think I’ve seen more along the lines of I can’t think of anything the, the specific but along the lines of how we use different communication channels. Okay. So, I have one client, they don’t, the only time I ever get an email as an employee gets an email there is cuz a new policy came out or something to sign. Slack is everything. Yeah. So, where you can have more of a conversation and a dialogue. But the big thing for me has been if it takes over three emails, call a meeting if this is something you want me to read and review, send it as an attachment, not content in an email. Yeah. if you have a call to action and a deadline, be very specific. Give me that. Because some of us hesitate to ask people to do something by a date, but we probably have a date in our mind. So put it out there. That way people know how to prioritize it. 

Joe:
Would this be possible by…? Yes.

Suzanne:
Yep. And review, know, know who you’re sending it to. People, some people really like bullet lists. Yeah. Conciseness make sure it’s clear. It takes genius to make things as short as possible and stuff.

Joe:
It does. It it’s an art form, isn’t it? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You know, I, I you have some though. I do have a couple. Yeah. I, I think it’s interesting. Okay. I think some people would push back on if it’s more than three emails, call a meeting. Cuz everybody is so meetings-driven, and people don’t have the real estate available on their calendar to, to add an email or add a meeting. And so, you know, emails just kind of go back and forth.

Suzanne:
Well, okay, the alternative is to pick up the phone.

Joe:
Right. That’s where I was going. That yes. So, you know, I’ve, I’ve seen people who have said hey if anything and this is gray or you want to have a conversation, I’m available today between this time and this time. Call me and here’s my number. I’ve seen some of those kinds of things where people even will time block in their day where they just keep an open hour or something to, to be available, to respond to phone calls, to cut down on things like that. I have seen a lot of other kinds of email boundary setting. I have seen companies who have in an effort to help employees genuinely get away when they’re out of the office on vacation.

Joe:
Say your emails that come into your inbox while you are away will be deleted. And they give them an out-of-office autoresponder that says, I am away. I’m on vacation during this time. If you need assistance, please call this person who is in coverage for me when I am gone. Any emails received between date and date will not be processed or responded to. If you need assistance after I return, feel free to reach out. That’s hard. Right. But imagine that right now some people are shaking right now after her after hearing that.

Suzanne:
I think I’m getting hives.

Joe:
Hives. Yes. Yes.

Suzanne:
<Laugh> delete them. Yeah. Definitely Out of office protocol. Yes. Mean absolutely enforce the protocol and do have someone that can, you know, give the alternative email, give the alternative phone number. Yeah. Try to help people have as clean, you know, short of an inbox list as possible when they come back. I love that idea. Yeah. I don’t know about deleting them, but okay.

Joe:
Yeah. That’s a little stressful. Right? Yeah. I’ve, I’ve seen tags at the bottom of emails that acknowledge that people’s work times and work patterns are different, right? Where they say, okay, if you receive this email at a time when you are not working, do not, I do not expect you to reply. And, and you know, I’m not really sharing that in an elegant way, but I’ve seen examples of that where people basically say, hey, I get the disclaimer Yeah. When I, what, you know, work times that work for me are not the same that work for you, so hey, no pressure. And I think those things can be valuable, especially if they’re coming from a direct supervisor and that direct supervisor has communicated to their personnel that they don’t expect people to drop everything in reply. Right. Now that said, we do also know that even if you say those things if I am working for somebody who is a go-getter, hard charger boss who works a ton of hours and they’re firing off emails in the evening or at a time when I’m not working, I may not be wired to keep that boundary in place.

Joe:
Even if my boss asks me to, that may be a button for me, and I may feel like I just wanna respond. I just, I mean, there’s no big deal. I’m sitting here on the couch, I’m just gonna go ahead and

Suzanne:
Respond. Yeah, they’re, they’re online. Yeah. They’ll read it, they’ll see that I, yeah. So yeah, for the leaders out there, I would say send it in work hours. Write it whenever you want. Schedule it to send first thing Monday. 

Joe:
There it is. That’s the other thing I was gonna mention is “schedule send”, like if you use, I do it any major email client has a little drop, often has a little dropdown arrow next to the send button where you can choose to schedule. And I’ve started doing this because I have team members and I will set, send emails out in the evening if I’m catching up on something and I, I’ve not wanted them to land. I had a staff member who, who took a day off recently and I did not want, I know that these emails are gonna show up on her phone and I did not want that to happen on her day off. Yep. So, I scheduled them all to go out at four o’clock at the end of, at kind of the end of that day. I think that’s really a kind gesture. What else?

Suzanne:
I do that for clients too. Yeah. I do that for clients too. And wait a minute, Joe, this ties back into our first topic.

Joe:
Okay.

Suzanne:
So, you could have an evening routine where you write emails yeah. And schedule ’em for the morning. And when you get up in the morning, you already have something accomplished.

Joe:
There it is.

Suzanne:
Those emails went out and you’re like, look at what I did already. So, your emails are going out while you’re meditating or practicing your new skill. Absolutely. Whatever that’s gonna be.

Joe:
And that was the thing that

Suzanne:
Was in that I did that. I remember.

Joe:
Go ahead.

Suzanne:
I was gonna say, I remember the first time I scheduled an email cuz it was Sunday and I’m like, oh my gosh, I thought of something really cool, and I wrote emails. I got up in the morning, I had my coffee and I’m like, I just sent three emails already today. <Laugh>, look at me roll. And I hadn’t done anything, you know, it’s already I had a sense of accomplishment. So…

Joe:
That’s great. That’s great. And it’s interesting that, that actually what, what you mentioned about an evening routine was one of the other ideas put forth in that article we talked about in the first segment where it said, you know, once you get a good morning routine, maybe consider an evening routine that helps you unwind, that helps you come down from a busy day. And certainly, there are lots of the, of the things that we talked about in that morning routine conversation that could apply about meditation and stillness and, and planning for the next day and whatnot.

Suzanne:
Because we can’t forget, we must all strive for seven to eight hours of sleep. Yes. You can’t sacrifice the sleep for the morning and evening. That’s right. Routines. That’s, that’s right. Get done. So, it’s important too.

Joe:
Well, we have run the gamut today. We talked about, we have morning routines, we’ve talked about evening, we’ve talked about emails in between, we talked about slowing down and writing better. And we now we’re throwing a little tag on here at the end about getting good sleep. I mean, we are really coming at you, BossHeroes to help you have the healthiest, most successful, most productive, most balanced 2023 that you possibly can have. So, we hope you enjoyed this first episode of the New Year. If you enjoyed this show, we would love it if you would subscribe on whatever platform you are listening, whether it’s YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeartRadio, Amazon, wherever you’re listening to us. Just take a moment right now to hit that subscribe button and each week when our new episode is released, you’ll get that little like red notification dot that says, hey, a new episode is now available, and you won’t miss a thing here on Boss Better Now. So, thanks for listening and we will see you next week.

Suzanne:
This show is sponsored by Joe Mull and Associates. Remember, commitment comes from better bosses. Visit joemull.com today.