How to answer the same question again and again more quickly

Plus a repeat appearance of my DBF (dog best friend) Hank. Because every day is better with a smiling dog.

Hello and welcome to Academia Made Easier. I am so glad that you are here. 

Many of us working in higher education have publicly accessible email addresses. Just google a faculty or staff member’s name and one is typically rewarded with their email address and bio. The result is that we can receive a lot of email requests for information, assistance, graduate supervision, media commentary, and opportunities to publish in the Junk Journal of Bullshit Sciences.

Predatory journal invitations aside, many of these requests merit some sort of response. When a high school student reaches out to me to ask about my research for a paper they are working on, I want to be helpful. (Maybe they are a future political scientist!) When a prospective graduate student emails to ask about working with me, I want to provide clear information so that they know what areas I am willing to supervise. When a journalist wants information for a story, I want to help direct them appropriately.

Over time, some questions come up again and again. “Didn’t I already answer this,” I wonder, scanning my email and my memory? Yes, I did: my sent mail shows I answered a similar question three times already this year. The first answer was thoughtful. The second was a bit abrupt. And the third was too delayed to actually be useful.

Anything that is done repeatedly, even if irregularly, is an opportunity for automation or streamlining. To this end, I found a solution for repeat questions. If you also get repeat questions, today’s small thing to try immediately might be a solution for you as well.

One Small Thing to Try Immediately: FAQ Email Signatures

Longtime Academia Made Easier readers know that I love email signatures. My very first ‘small thing to try immediately’ was the “thanks but no” email signature, which is an email signature to make it easier to decline requests. I also suggested using an email signature to create a pause before committing to new projects. Both of those email signature ideas are intended to keep you from overcommitting yourself. 

The frequently asked questions (FAQ) email signatures have a different purpose: to save time while being helpful to others. Here is how to create them.

1.Decide to be helpful within defined limits. When strangers reach out with queries, many of us want to be helpful. At the same time, there are only so many hours in the day and you already have a lot to do. For this reason, it is important to remember that you are allowed to be helpful on your own terms. Let me repeat this for the people-pleasers: You are allowed to be helpful on your own terms. This may mean providing a boilerplate answer. This may involve not answering someone’s specific questions but pointing them toward your publications to find the answers themselves and/or redirecting them to others who can help. This may (gasp) require simply saying “I am not the expert on this. Good luck with your project!”

Pro tip: if answering a person’s question requires you to search up email addresses or other information, allow yourself to not do so.

2.Whenever you receive the same question more than once, create an email signature. In my experience, a question I receive twice is a question I am going to receive semi-regularly. When I get the second question, I search my sent email to find my original response and then I adapt it to create a generic email signature. (If you are unsure how to create an email signature, check out this three-minute Youtube video.) It takes roughly the same time to create the email signature as it does to answer that second email and you save your future self a lot of time.

Here are some examples from my own FAQ email signature collection to inspire your thinking:

Hi,

Thanks for this invitation. I am not available to speak to this at this time. I recommend speaking to [name, university], [name, university], or [name, university]. Please also check out the Informed Opinions Experts list for other contacts to provide insights and commentary. 

All the best,

Loleen

Hello,

Thank you for your interest in my research on western alienation. To address your questions, please see the article I wrote for IRPP, “The Persistence of Western Alienation”, watch the talk I gave to McGill University’s Institute for the Study of Canada, and listen to the interview I did with CBC Radio’s Front Burner. For further consideration of the topic, the Viewpoint Alberta surveys and Confederation of Tomorrow surveys also provide valuable public opinion data.

I trust these resources will be helpful to you. Best wishes with your research!

All the best,

Loleen

Hello, 

Thank you for your interest in working with me. Please note that I am unable to answer admissions-related or scholarship-funding questions or to provide comments on prospective students’ application materials, CVs, or other materials. All admissions decisions are made by the admissions committee. Please contact [email] for any questions related to admissions.

My current research interests are in Canadian higher education policy, including financing, access, and regulation. I have a particular interest in graduate education, micro-credentials, and the tie between university education and labour market skills training. Students interested in working with me on these topics should apply to [details].

I hope this helps. Have a great day!

All the best,

Loleen Berdahl

3.Personalize the email signature text as you use them. The generic email signatures are often fine on their own, requiring simply the insertion of the person’s name. At times, I want to add a few more sentences or remove text, both of which involve almost no time.

And that’s all there is to it!

One of the things I particularly like about FAQ email signatures is that the templated answers are better than the one-off answers that I might provide. For example, on a day in which I don’t have time to personally respond to a media request, I also don’t have time to write an email encouraging the journalist to visit the Informed Opinions database, despite the fact that I want women and gender diverse experts to have voices in the media. (Canadian female and gender diverse colleagues: be sure to add your name to their expert list!) Using the email signature means that this information is included in my default response.

What questions do you tend to get and what solutions have you found? Please let me know on Twitter (tag me at @loleen_berdahl), or hit the comment button and share it below. I would love to hear from you!

Chipping Away: What I Have Been Up To

A quick update on some of my own activities since my last newsletter, since I have your attention:

• My coauthors and I presented papers at the Canadian Political Science Association annual meetings. One paper examined Canadian and Australian PhD student career aspirations and preparedness, while the other workshopped our ideas about reimagining Arts graduate education. We received excellent and constructive feedback that will be very informative to our work.

• Convocation! It was lovely to participate in in-person graduation pinning ceremonies and convocation ceremonies this year. As a bonus, I got to wear a cool hat! My graduation advice to our students focused on the importance of celebrating milestones by eating sugar (preferably in cake form). If you had a big success this year, such as a graduation, tenure, a book release, or simply surviving another year of pandemic life, I suggest you also take a moment to celebrate. Cake for everyone!

• My neighbours were kind enough to trust me with my dog best friend Hank for another weekend while they were away. Hank and I devoted a full weekend to relaxing, walking, and sharing baby carrots. He is such a good boy! (Yes he is!)

Until next time…

As always, thank you for reading Academia Made Easier and for sharing it with your friends, colleagues, and social media networks. It is a pleasure to be part of your academic life.

Stay well, my colleagues. 

P.S. Anyone who reads all the way to the bottom should be rewarded, so here is another Hank photo. Enjoy!

Want to support my chocolate habit? You are very sweet. Buy me a coffee is a site that allows readers to show their appreciation for the unpaid labour of writers, artists, and other creatives. Check it out!

If you are interested in having me lead faculty success and/or graduate student success workshops at your campus, please ask your university to contact me!

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Loleen Berdahl, Ph.D.: I am a twin mother, wife, runner, cat lover, and chocolate enthusiast. I spend far too much time on Twitter and binge-watching television, and my house could be a lot cleaner. During the work hours, I am the Executive Director of the  Johnson Shoyama Graduate School of Public Policy. I am the author of the University Affairs Skills Agenda column and my most recent books are Work Your Career: Get What You Want from Your Social Sciences or Humanities PhD and Explorations: Conducting Empirical Research in Canadian Political Science.