Much harder than the first week.
It’s not that I ran out of people to email or questions to ask. It’s that I ran out of time to ask the questions. It’s that I procrastinated because I thought the emails I wanted to send were too important to send without devoting a lot of time to writing them.
The key to an effective email is, I think, to make it short and to the point. Clearly ask. Don’t waste time.
But, when I’m asking for more, I feel like I need to send a justification along with my email. I need to give some support, some background info for why I’m asking, especially since I’m asking people I’ve never contacted before.
I’m not sure this is a good strategy. It’s just the one I’ve been working with this past week. And I only sent five emails that count toward the experiment:
- Camera guy: I saw a deal on Craigslist for a pretty decent camera, so I made an offer for about 60% of what he was asking. Again, never hurts to try, but he didn’t reply.
- A friend in Korea: He had told me about a bus line I didn’t know about. I emailed him to find out how he learned about it. Come to find out, he just used Google maps and selected public transportation. Good to know.
- Another friend in Korea: She mentioned a place where I could rent or maybe even buy a bicycle. I asked her where it’s located and how much the bikes cost. I haven’t heard back yet.
- A blogger running a my charity: water project: I asked to interview him. He said yes, and I think it turned out really well.
- An online interviewer: I won’t get into the details on this. I was just asking for some technical help. Hopefully, I’ll get some good advice. Again, I haven’t heard back yet.
The plan is to catch back up over the weekend. We’ll see how that turns out.
