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20-second career tip

Write emails people can answer from their phone

About Rohan

Hey, I’m Rohan!

I write thoughts about life and career strategy a few times a month.

I run Coached, the behavioral science lab, and Resume Worded, the best software for job seekers.

A good place to start is our free 3‑minute, science-backed personality test.

A habit worth building early: whenever you write to someone, do the thinking on your side, so all that's left on theirs is a decision. "Thoughts on this?" hands them work — they now have to figure out what you're really asking, form a view, and compose an answer.

"I'd go with Option B because it's faster to ship — good to proceed?" hands them a choice. One thumb, done, from anywhere.

Almost every message you send can pass this test. Status update? Lead with the one line they care about, not the journey. Need an intro? Include the forwardable blurb so they don't have to write one. Flagging a problem? Attach your suggested fix and ask "any objection?"

Why do this? You hit less friction, you actually get replies (especially from senior people, who basically live on their phones), and you're not that guy sending the 8th "just following up on this!" email.

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Illustration of Rohan Mahtani
Written by Rohan Mahtani
From Coached Weekly, issue 362.

I also send these out by email.

This is Coached Weekly, my career notes where I share the tiny % of ideas that actually work in real careers. It takes 5 minutes to read, but could speed up your career by years. I write this myself (no AI). —Rohan Mahtani (LinkedIn)

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Another tip1 min read

Ask "is this a priority or are you thinking out loud?"

A weird dynamic you’ve probably experienced: the more senior someone is, the more their offhand comments get treated as orders. A VP muses "have we ever looked at X?" in a meeting, and someone burns two weeks building a deck on X — that the VP didn’t really care about.

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