{"id":526,"date":"2014-06-05T23:53:33","date_gmt":"2014-06-05T15:53:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.tjbaek.com\/?p=526"},"modified":"2014-06-05T23:53:33","modified_gmt":"2014-06-05T15:53:33","slug":"how-to-make-your-life-better-by-sending-five-simple-emails","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.tjbaek.com\/?p=526","title":{"rendered":"How To Make Your Life Better By Sending Five Simple Emails"},"content":{"rendered":"
July 16, 2013\u00a0 by Eric Barker<\/a><\/div>\n

How To Make Your Life Better By Sending Five Simple Emails<\/h1>\n
\n

\"how-to-make-your-life-better\"<\/p>\n

How to make your life better? All you need is email.<\/strong><\/p>\n

I\u2019ve covered a lot of research on how to make your life better but many people struggle with implementing changes because it seems like a major undertaking. It doesn\u2019t have to be.<\/p>\n

You can make strides in 5 fundamental areas by just sending 5 emails.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

HAPPINESS<\/h2>\n

Every morning send a friend, family member or co-worker an email to say thanks for something. <\/strong><\/p>\n

Might sound silly but it\u2019s actually excellent advice on how to make your life better.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s tons<\/a> and tons<\/a> and tons<\/a> of research showing that over time, this alone \u2013 one silly email a day \u2013 can make you happier.<\/p>\n

Via Harvard professor Shawn Achor\u2019s\u00a0The Happiness Advantage:<\/a><\/p>\n

This is why I often ask managers to write an e-mail of praise or thanks to a friend, family member, or colleague each morning before they start their day\u2019s work\u2014not just because it contributes to their own happiness, but because it very literally cements a relationship.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

(More on increasing happiness here<\/a>.)<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

JOB<\/h2>\n

At the end of the week, send your boss an email and sum up what you\u2019ve accomplished. <\/strong><\/p>\n

They probably have no idea what you\u2019re doing with your time. They\u2019re busy. They have their own problems.<\/p>\n

For your boss, this let\u2019s them know what you\u2019ve been up to without having to ask and saves them from wondering and worrying. They\u2019ll appreciate it and probably come to rely on it.<\/p>\n

For you, it\u2019s proactive and shows off your efforts, which Stanford professor Jeffrey Pfeffer says is the key to success<\/a> in any organization:<\/p>\n

\u2026you should make sure that your performance is visible to your boss and your accomplishments are visible.<\/strong>\u00a0Your superiors in the organization have their own jobs, are managing their own careers, are busy human beings. \u00a0And you should not assume that they\u2019re spending all their time thinking about you and worrying about you and your career.<\/strong><\/p>\n

More on improving your work life here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

GROWTH<\/h2>\n

Once a week email a potential mentor. <\/strong><\/p>\n

Doesn\u2019t have to be related to your job. Who do you admire that you could learn from?<\/p>\n

As I\u2019ve blogged about before, mentors are key to success<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Via\u00a0The Genius in All of Us: New Insights into Genetics, Talent, and IQ<\/a>:<\/p>\n

Any person lucky enough to have had one great teacher who inspired, advised, critiqued, and had endless faith in her student\u2019s ability will tell you what a difference that person has made in her life. \u201cMost students who become interested in an\u00a0academic subject do so because they have met a teacher who was able to pique their interest,\u201d write Csikszentmih\u00e1lyi, Rathunde, and Whalen.<\/strong>\u00a0It is yet another great irony of the giftedness myth: in the final analysis, the true road to success lies not in a person\u2019s molecular structure, but in his developing the most productive attitudes and identifying magnificent external resources.<\/strong><\/p>\n

This is one of those things everyone seems to know but nobody does anything about.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s the age of the internet, folks. If you have Google and half an ounce of resourcefulness it\u2019s not that hard to find almost anyone\u2019s email address. If they have a website, their email is probably listed on it.<\/p>\n

What do you write? Try Adam\u2019s method<\/a>\u00a0or Tim\u2019s method<\/a>\u00a0or Ramit\u2019s method<\/a>.<\/p>\n

(More on the power of mentors here<\/a>.)<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

FRIENDSHIP<\/h2>\n

Email a good friend and make plans.<\/strong><\/p>\n

What does research say keeps friendships alive? Staying in touch every 2 weeks<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Got 14 friends? Then you need to be emailing somebody every day.<\/p>\n

And what should you email them about? Make plans to get together.<\/p>\n

Research shows the best use of electronic communication is to facilitate face-to-face interaction<\/a>:<\/p>\n

The results were unequivocal. \u201cThe greater the proportion of face-to-face interactions, the less lonely you are,\u201d he says. \u201cThe greater the proportion of online interactions, the lonelier you are.\u201d<\/strong>\u00a0Surely, I suggest to\u00a0Cacioppo<\/a>, this means that Facebook and the like inevitably make people lonelier. He disagrees.Facebook is merely a tool, he says, and like any tool, its effectiveness will depend on its user. \u201cIf you use Facebook to increase face-to-face contact,\u201d he says, \u201cit increases social capital.\u201d So if social media let you organize a game of football among your friends, that\u2019s healthy. If you turn to social media instead of playing football, however, that\u2019s unhealthy.<\/strong><\/p>\n

(More on improving friendships here<\/a>.)<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

CAREER<\/h2>\n

Send an email to someone you know (but don\u2019t know very well) and check in.<\/strong><\/p>\n

These \u201cweak ties\u201d are the primary source of future career opportunities.<\/p>\n

From Charles Duhigg\u2019s excellent book\u00a0The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business<\/a>:<\/p>\n

In fact,\u00a0in landing a job, Granovetter discovered, weak-tie acquaintances were often more important than strong-tie friends because weak ties give us access to social networks where we don\u2019t otherwise belong.\u00a0<\/strong>Many of the people Granovetter studied had learned about new job opportunities through weak ties, rather than from close friends, which makes sense because\u00a0we talk to our closest friends all the time, or work alongside them or read the same blogs. By the time they have heard about a new opportunity, we probably know about it<\/strong>, as well. On the other hand, our weak-tie acquaintances\u2014 the people we bump into every six months\u2014 are the ones who tell us about jobs we\u00a0would otherwise never hear about.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut I don\u2019t know what to say.\u201d<\/em>\u00a0 Do any little thing that benefits them, not you. Try Adam Rifkin\u2019s 5 minute favor<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Or just send them a link they might find useful.<\/p>\n

Still stuck? Okay, send them the link to the post you\u2019re reading right now.<\/p>\n

If this has helped you with how to make your life better it can probably help them too.\u00a0\u00a0\ud83d\ude09<\/p>\n

(More on how to network effectively here<\/a>.)<\/p>\n

Join 45K+ readers.<\/strong>\u00a0Get a free weekly update via email\u00a0here<\/a><\/p>\n

Related posts:<\/p>\n

What 10 things should you do every day to improve your life?<\/a><\/p>\n

What do people regret the most before they die?<\/a><\/p>\n

What five things can make sure you never stop growing and learning?<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

July 16, 2013\u00a0 by Eric Barker How To Make Your Life Better By Sending Five Simple Emails How to make your life better? All you need is email. I\u2019ve covered a lot of research on how to make your life better but many people struggle with implementing changes because it seems like a major undertaking….<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-526","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-good_words"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.tjbaek.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/526","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.tjbaek.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.tjbaek.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.tjbaek.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.tjbaek.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=526"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blog.tjbaek.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/526\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":528,"href":"https:\/\/blog.tjbaek.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/526\/revisions\/528"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.tjbaek.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=526"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.tjbaek.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=526"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.tjbaek.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=526"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}