Best Practices For Task Instructions In Emails

Listen, Linda, your clients are busy. They don’t have time to read an essay every time you send an update. The trick? Get to the point without losing that professional touch. Here’s how to do it: 1. Start with the Outcome Instead of building up to your point, lead with it! Say, “The project is on track, and we’re set to finish by Friday.” Then, add any details if needed. 2. Use Bullet Points for Clarity Instead of a chunky paragraph, break it down: → Completed tasks → Next steps → Any questions/feedback needed 3. End with One Clear CTA Don’t overwhelm your client with multiple questions or requests. Keep it simple: “Please review the draft by Thursday and let me know your thoughts.” Remember: Your client shouldn’t have to dig through fluff to find the key info. Be direct, be clear, and make it easy for them to respond. VA OG Tip: After drafting your email, read it once and cut out any words that don’t add value. Less is more! Ready to write emails that get replies, not eye rolls? Follow me for more VA insights! Monica ✌🏼❤️

Want to stand out as a law firm associate? Have a dialed-in client email strategy. Ease the burden of your in-house contact's email inbox. As with any strategy, understanding the reality of your in-house clients' world is key: they're juggling multiple legal matters. They're serving dozens or even hundreds of internal "clients" across their organization. Each business unit, manager, and project team needs their attention. Their inbox is a constant stream of urgent requests, necessary approvals, and internal discussions. Every email you send either adds to or eases this cognitive burden. How you email can make a real difference in how clients view both you and your firm. Your email habits show you understand their world and are actively working to make their job easier (bad habits will have the opposite effect). In addition to understanding their world, it's important to understand their communication preferences. In other words, there's no one-size-fits-all-approach here. But...there are some solid go-to techniques that, at least in my experience, most in-house counsel appreciate. Here are a few ideas: 1. Lead with clear "next steps" at the top of a substantive email—don't bury action items in lengthy prose. 2. Write in a way that makes it easy for your in-house contact to forward to business colleagues: use plain English summaries, clear headers, and explicitly call out what's needed from each stakeholder. 3. Remember that your email might be forwarded multiple times as part of internal discussions, so make it scannable and self-contained—a business executive should be able to understand the key points without needing the full email chain for context. 4. Make your subject lines work harder—label them clearly as [ACTION NEEDED] or [UPDATE ONLY] and include a few key details for context. 5. Keep separate matters in separate emails—this makes it easier for your in-house contact to forward only relevant pieces to different business teams. 6. When sending documents for review, highlight the 2-3 key areas needing attention rather than leaving them to hunt through the full document. 7. Instead of sending multiple updates, consolidate them into regular digestible summaries. Create a predictable rhythm your clients can rely on—they'll appreciate knowing when to expect updates and can plan their workflow accordingly. 8. For complex matters with multiple workstreams, maintain a simple status report that can be quickly skimmed or forwarded to show progress at a glance. These things might seem small, but they demonstrate real professionalism and understanding of your clients' needs. You're not just handling legal work—you're actively making your clients' jobs easier. And that goes a long way toward helping you stand out as an associate for the right reasons.

In my 10.5 years learning and teaching business writing at Amazon, I adopted many best practices that made my communication clearer, but this one tip does that AND shows that I’m on top my game. Super clear, explicit actions. If you don’t leave a meeting, convo, or doc review without actions, did it even happen?! Not being clear on the actions or follow-ups shows a lack of follow-through and unclear stakeholder management. Here’s the simple formula for your emails and recaps: 1️⃣ ACTION: the actual follow-up 2️⃣ OWNER: who owns it, as specific as possible 3️⃣ TIMELINE: when it’s due. If you aren’t sure, then add a Date for a Date (DFD) Ex. “The tech team will fix everything (Tech Team Name, ECD: 5/1/25)” Even non-action actions count. Like: “Review and report on the results of ABC experiment (Myra Deshmukh by 3/25)” Next time you send a meeting recap, business write-up, newsletter, etc, please add clear and explicit actions! #writing #clearcommunication #careerdevelopment #effectivecommunication #amazon #leadershiplab