Clear Email Updates That Save Time in Meetings

Got an executive too busy to talk to you? Same. That’s why your weekly roundup email needs to be working overtime. In a world where your exec is triple-booked and skimming more than reading, a well-structured weekly email becomes survival. For you and for them. It cuts down the noise, keeps things tight, and makes you look like the organized genius you are. Here’s how to pull it together like a pro: 📬 Subject Line: Keep it tight and specific. Example: Weekly Update: Sales Ops – Week Ending June 14 👋 Greeting: Professional but warm. Example: Hi Jamie, hope your week’s been productive. 📝 Opening Line: Set the tone and purpose. Example: Here’s a quick roundup of this week’s key updates and priorities. 📌 Key Highlights: What went well. What moved forward. Keep it bullet-style. Completed onboarding for three new hires Finalized Q2 budget and submitted for approval Closed out logistics plan for annual meeting ⚡ Priority Actions/Decisions Needed: This is your call-to-action zone. Be clear. Be bold. Add deadlines. Decision Needed: Approve travel expenses by Friday Action Required: Feedback on draft deck for client meeting 🚧 Challenges/Issues: Don’t just bring problems. Bring potential solutions. Issue: Software update delay – ETA Tuesday Solution: Use current version until rollout 📅 Upcoming Events/Deadlines: Quick scan of what’s coming up. Help them stay ahead. Monday: Team strategy session – 10AM Wednesday: Stakeholder presentation – 2PM Friday: Finance report deadline 🔗 Quick Access Links: No hunting through inboxes. Link it once, link it right. Q2 Budget Report Client Meeting Agenda ✅ Wrap it Up: Let them know what’s next and how to respond. Example: Let me know if you’d like more details on anything above. Looking forward to your feedback on the action items. And if your exec says, “Wow, that weekly email is so helpful,” take the win. But if they don’t say anything but actually read it? Still a win. Streamlining communication like this not only supports your leader, it builds trust, shows initiative, and reinforces your strategic value. Anyone else swear by weekly roundup emails? Or thinking of starting? Let’s swap tips 👇 #evolvedassistant #administrativeassistant #executivesupport #administrativeprofessionals #executiveassistant

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.

If I had a dollar for every vague update I’ve seen, I could retire from project management and live off passive aggressive email threads. The biggest project failures I’ve seen? Not caused by bad software. Caused by emails that read like riddles and meetings that could’ve been… literally anything else. Here’s what’s saved me from communication chaos: The 3C Rule: Clear. Concise. Contextual. CLEAR: Use words that actually mean something. ✘ "We need to optimize the user experience." ✔ "We need to reduce checkout time from 3 minutes to 1." (Unless “optimize” means “do nothing,” let’s be specific.) CONCISE: Get to the point before people fall asleep. ✘ "Following up on the thing from earlier that we mentioned that time..." ✔"Decision needed: Launch Feature X March 1 or 15?" (You had me at “decision.”) CONTEXTUAL: Tell people why it matters. ✘ "Please review the attached document." ✔"Please review by Friday, we can’t start dev without it." (Because no one wants to discover they’re the blocker five minutes before logging off.) The result? •Fewer emails •Fewer status meetings about status meetings •More decisions •Less collective eye-rolling Communication isn’t about saying more. It’s about saying something people actually understand. Stop writing novels. Start making sense. What’s your biggest PM communication pet peeve? I’ll go first: emails with no subject line.