As with most people, when I first learned the how-to’s of communication – be it a resume, cover letter, cold email, college application, or coffee chat, I was taught the tried-and-true rubrics that my predecessors used with reasonable success. I’ve never liked these cut-and-dry templates, but by societal norms, I deemed them necessary. But they not only lack personality, but often times, relevance to whom they’re addressing, on a human level. Of course since then, I changed my whole suite of online, as well as in-person, communication, but I know there are still many means I may have overlooked or taken for granted. In the past two years, I’ve made it my mission to notice and change what isn’t me, and along that path, I stumbled across my old email vacation response.
This post was actually inspired, over dinner, by my friend as she’s gearing up for the holiday season. On the flip side, Brad Feld, a brilliant VC, through his blog post on Feld Thoughts and Nick Kokonas, one of the creative geniuses behind the Alinea Group, in an episode of the Tim Ferriss Show, inspired my current email vacation response that I started using about a year back:
I’m currently out building my first wand, but I can’t seem to find the elusive phoenix for its feathers.
I know I’m supposed to say I won’t be able to respond until I get back on
[date], but the truth is I’ll be lying out of my ass, pardon my French. In always having my phone with me, I will more likely than not see a notification blip pop up on my phone lock screen. And I know that from time to time, I will need to interrupt my vacation to answer something urgent.That said, I promised myself I’d unplug and enjoy my vacation as best as I can. So, I’m going to run an experiment. I’m going to let you decide:
– If your matter is really urgent, resend the email with your subject line preceded by [URGENT] and I’ll try to respond nimbly.
– Otherwise, I’ll respond when I return to the beautiful SF.Cheerios and orange juice,
David
As a final commentary, I highly recommend following both Brad and Nick’s work, regardless if you’re in the VC or culinary fields, or not. I’ve been a big fan of both for years, and their insights, outside of email structures, have definitely helped me become the person I am today. As a cherry on top, I find Nick’s Twitter and Medium profile descriptions hilarious.