When making appointments, use specific dates.

‘Today’ and ‘tomorrow’ can be dangerous words in e-mails. A lot of people have missed job interviews because they used the words ‘today’ or ‘tomorrow’ ambiguously. Don’t say: “I’ll see you tomorrow at 3 o’clock.” Say: “I’ll see you tomorrow, Tuesday, June 3 at 3 o’clock.” Keep in mind that ISPs (Internet Service Providers) go down all the time. When they do, e-mails get delayed, sometimes for hours. If you send someone an e-mail at 3:00PM that says ‘I’ll see you tomorrow’, the recipient may not get your message until he comes to work the following day, in which case, you may show up a day early or a day late for your appointment. Don’t leave prospective employers (or anyone else) wondering what date you are talking about. It makes you look unprofessional. It also makes you look like someone who doesn’t pay attention to details, and worst of all, you could miss your appointment. Remember the old saying – You only get one chance to make a good first impression.

There is another problem with the words ‘today’ and ‘tomorrow.’ There are different ways of thinking about the meaning these words. For some people, ‘today’ means ‘this day’, or in other words, from sunrise to sunset. For other people, ‘today’ means sunrise to sunrise, and for other people it means midnight to midnight. A lot of people use the words ‘day’ and ‘date’ as though they thought that these words meant the same thing, but they don’t. In your mind, your day may have started when you got out of bed this morning, but you know that the date changed at midnight. ‘Today’ and ‘tomorrow’ can be ambiguous. Dates are specific. Use specific dates in all your business correspondence.

I often have this problem in my business. When I have a house for rent listed on Craigslist, I frequently get e-mails from people with questions like: “Can I see your house sometime tomorrow?” I don’t answer questions like that with ‘Yes’ or ‘No’ because I don’t know what this person has in mind by ‘sometime tomorrow’. I write back and ask: “Specifically when would you like to see the house?” You might be surprised at how frequently people are offended and get angry with me when I ask them to tell me exactly when they want to come on over and see my house. It’s strange, but this happens quite often.