Perhaps the most used and abused communication tool in existence
today is email. Our ability to work productively would be dramatically
reduced if we didn’t have access to email. However, because we have
access to email our lives are constantly interrupted, often with
useless pieces of information.
The key to getting the most from email is making sure you find a system
that helps you stay on top of things properly and also filters out the
non-important items that may cause you to switchtask.
The following are a few rules of thumb TimeGym clients have found very helpful in making email a blessing and not a curse:
- Carbon copy or CC sparingly.
Recently I heard of an employee who aggravated her boss to the point of
her getting fired. One of the habits she had was to almost always
carbon copy her boss when sending email—perhaps in attempt to look
busy. When adding people to a carbon copy list, make sure the
information is truly valuable for their position and is necessary for
them to do their job properly. If you do need to update a co-worker
about the things you have been doing, save it for a weekly email digest
or an in-person meeting. - Be very cautious in using “Reply to All.”
The Reply to All button sends an email response to everyone in the “To”
and “CC” list of the original email. In general, only hit “Reply to
All” when the email was meant to be a group discussion, and only if
your reply is valuable and relevant to every other person listed in the
email. Otherwise, you risk clogging the email inboxes of others who
have no need or desire to see your response. - Use “Blind Carbon Copy” or “BCC” for mixed groups.
We have all received a funny or heartwarming email forwarded to us from
a loved one. However, if you decide you absolutely cannot resist
sending a picture of a kitten dressed as Captain Jack Sparrow, be sure
you send it out to your recipients using “Blind Carbon Copy.” This
protects the email identities of those receiving the email and helps
minimize spam. - Limit the number of topics within an email.
Have you ever sent an email to someone with a series of questions only
to find they responded to only three of the seventeen points you
painstakingly covered? Always remember this law of email: the shorter the email, the more likely it is to be read.
Try to break different concepts into different emails. If you must have
multiple topics within a single email, try to break them up into short
small thoughts. At the very least, be sure to use bullet points or
paragraph spacing between different concepts. - Use effective subject lines.
Often I will see subject lines that are empty or are not related to the
meat of the email. While this may appear quick or clever, it creates a
problem later when your recipient tries to search for your
conversation. Poorly written subject lines also make it harder for the
person receiving the email to understand what action they need to
perform.Be especially aware of the
subject line if an email conversation changes course. If the
conversation switches from the advertising campaign to making a new
hire, take a moment to change the subject line. This will help you and
your reader avoid confusion and make email retrieval easier in the
future. - Leave the history within your email.
Some people choose to disable showing the previous person’s email in
the history, perhaps in an attempt to reduce word clutter. The problem
is this makes it difficult for someone to follow the thread of the
conversation. For instance, if you write back to an email with a short
response like “sounds like a good idea” but there is no history of the
conversation it becomes very difficult for the recipient to know
exactly what you are referring to. The recipient then may have to
expend extra time and effort to go into their email history, and locate
what the idea was they sent in the first place. While it may appear
cluttered, always leave the history on and do not delete the sender’s
previous email.