This is an excerpt from 33 Ways Not to Screw Up Your Business Emails.
The panic hits the moment after you hit the Send button: I sent it to the wrong person! I attached the wrong file! I was only halfway through writing!
If only you could travel back in time and fix it.
Maybe you can, but only by 10 to 30 seconds or so, depending on your email client. You’ll need to act quickly.
Both Gmail and Microsoft Outlook have an Undo feature. When you send an email, a box pops up offering the option to Undo for a few moments, before the email disappears for good. You can change the setting for how long that email waits in the queue before it sends.
Give yourself time to react and undo the send. I changed my default setting to 30 seconds while writing this book.
You might even be able to recall an unread message from the inbox of a recipient, if you are both in the same organization. (Ask your email administrator.)
There are few times in life that we can turn back the clock, even for a few seconds. This is one of them. Give yourself that safety net.
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Find more tips in the book 33 Ways Not to Screw Up Your Business Emails.
