If you need any help or information from other people (such as colleagues, collaborators, support staff) it is important to be mindful of and respectful towards their time. The considerations outlined here will help make the process smooth and efficient for everyone involved.
Before reaching out¶
Before asking anyone for help, it is important to keep these three questions in mind:
Is the information already available somewhere?
Is this person responsible for this information and/or tasks?
If the person is unavailable, what are other ways to solve this?
Reaching out¶
If you still need to contact an individual for help or information, you will sooner receive a reply if you anticipate the questions that this individual may have for you. Acknowledge in your message that the individual may not be the right person to address the question to or may not have the time and/or energy to help you right now.
Make it clear why you are asking this individual something, and what exactly it is you are asking of them. Provide context and be specific, but keep your message as concise as possible.
Try to provide an estimate of how long the request will take. Be specific about the tasks and how they will be divided so that the individual can make their own assessment. If there are any deadlines involved, communicate these clearly. In general it is good practice to plan things out well in advance when you need input from other people.
Scheduling a meeting¶
Before trying to schedule a meeting, consider whether you can achieve your goal via an email exchange.
If a meeting is necessary and you want to schedule this, indicate some possible dates or ask if they prefer a different way of planning a meeting. Sometimes people use online appointment scheduling software, such as Calendly, that will allow you to check their calendar for their availability. Don’t offload the scheduling responsibilities to the other person. Don’t expect the person to be available on short notice, ask them on time!
When scheduling a meeting with a calendar planner, don’t open up 100 possibilities and close this planner within a week so people don’t have to keep multiple timeblocks blocked for your meeting. Especially if you are scheduling a meeting with multiple people, enforce your response deadline with a short reminder. If people haven’t responded, pick a date that works for the people that did fill out the planner.
Request accepted, now what?¶
Always communicate clearly what the next expected steps are. Take responsibility for your end of the process and deliver on time.
It may be useful to send reminders or check in with the person about the status of your request while you wait. However, wait at least a week before doing this and do not send a ton of reminders. Unless of course something is very urgent (but is it really?).
If a person follows through with your request for help, send them a thank you email.
For more information about how to collaborate remotely, read Guidelines for Remote Collaboration.
Resources¶
Blog on ‘how to ask a busy person for something’ (including example messages)