An unfortunate byproduct of Hustle Culture and the 1000mph society we live in these days is the increasing lack of pleasantries. We are so obsessed with our objectives that we barely take the time to acknowledge each other when we communicate.

This is particularly bad with written communication in the digital age.

Some may disagree and view these simple niceties as superfluous, but I find that basic manners which used to be a given are becoming a rarer sighting.

Ask yourself, do you really not have time to add a couple of extra words to that text message or email you're about to send?

Have you ever been on the receiving end of written communication where the person sending the message sounds flat out rude, or completely transactional?

In a world where so much of our communication is online & asynchronous, there's still a place for pleasantries.

Here are a few tactical tips for working pleasantries into your email etiquette:

• Never skip the greeting at the beginning of an email. Simply a "Hi ______" or "Nice to connect with you, _______" will suffice.

• Always use the person's name. This helps acknowledge that you are speaking to a human.

• If you're going to add a personalized pleasantry, save it for the end ("I hope you enjoyed your vacation", "Looking forward to the nice weather this weekend", etc, Note: if you want to stand out, please come up with something better than that!). This allows for the person to see the objective of your email without having to wade through the pleasantries.

  There is nothing but upside In taking the 30 extra seconds to add these human touches to your written communication.

  Let's stop normalizing being so busy that we skip this simple step. A little goes a long way.