Tips for Better E-Mail, Part 9: Update Those Files

If you find yourself searching endlessly for e-mails, chances are your filing system needs updating. Create a filing system with specific folder names. The longer you create a history, the larger those email folders become. So plan for the growth. Examples:

• Instead of Security, use Security-IT, Security-Building, etc.
• Instead of Security-IT, use Security-IT-Policy, Security-IT-Compliance, Security-IT-Passwords, etc.
• Instead of Security-IT-Passwords, use Security-IT-Passwords-Auditing, Security-IT-Passwords-Staff, Security-IT-Passwords-Training, etc.

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Tips for Better E-Mail, Part 8: Put First Things First

Take the lead from Stephen Covey’s Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, which advises the reader to put first things first. In this vein, prioritize your inbox and outbox. Being vigilant about what goes first and what goes last will increase your efficiency. Devise a “rating system” for handling all e-mail. Example:

• 1 = essential
• 2 = important
• 3 = optional
• 4 = useless

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Tips for Better E-Mail, Part 7: Create Your Own System

Time-management problems with e-mail come in large measure from becoming a slave to the system. Establish a strategy for dealing with e-mail. Convincing yourself that you manage e-mail and it doesn’t manage you gives you a strategic edge. Create e-mail moments. Examples:

• Infrequent e-mailers should aim for a consistent “e-hour” each day.
• More frequent e-mailers should aim for an hour at the beginning and middle of the day.
• Busy e-mailers should aim for the first half of each hour.

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Tips for Better E-Mail, Part 6: Silence Those Bells and Whistles!

Try living without the auto-notice feature. Those seconds spent looking at your e-mail inbox each time a new message arrives kill the flow of whatever you were doing, and they add unnecessary minutes to thinking about what those e-mails may contain. Then those minutes become hours. Turn off the auto-notice to reduce interruptions, if you can get away with it.

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Tips for Better E-Mail, Part 5: Blind Copy Thoughtfully

If you’re interested in maintaining good relationships, consider carefully whether you should blind copy. Many employees tell me that their managers insist on being blind copied on many e-mails; however, I do not consider such a practice as underhanded because we all know that our managers have the right to read those e-mails we write on the company system.

Blind copying enrages people not when you blind copy your boss but when you blind copy their boss, or project leader, or peer without their knowledge. Blind copying could be a serious ethical breach resulting in a loss of credibility and respect.

Blind copy only in situations which would not later cause you an embarrassing or defensive position. Blind copying messages to a distribution list is an example of a good practice because you spare each reader the trouble of sloughing through an endless recipient list.

Here's a guideline that will keep you out of harm's way: If you feel comfortable telling someone that you've blind copied to his boss the message you wrote to him, then you should be okay. But then why would you have bothered blind copying in the first place?


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Tips for Better E-Mail, Part 4: Remove the Recipient!

When writing an important e-mail—one that you’re sure will be seen by a lot of people, even unintended ones—draft and revise with an empty recipient box. Enter the recipients only after you've carefully edited your message. This safety precaution will ensure that you don’t embarrass yourself by prematurely pressing send .


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Tips for Better E-Mail, Part 3: Check Those Fragments

Done.
Got it.
Just a thought.
Looking forward to it.
Nice meeting you again.
See you tomorrow.
Talk to you then.
To update.

In checking my e-mail inbox and, admittedly, outbox over the past week, I found the eight fragments above posturing as sentences. Of course, many of us—even at the highest levels of organizations—have written such statements in e-mails when we've believed that our readers would understand them in the context of our message. Therefore, only a grammar snob would cringe at the sight of these phrases.

My only concern with fragmented writing is that employees who solely write e-mails may not know better when called upon to write a formal document, say a white paper, proposal, technical report, or standard operating procedure. Believe me: Many times, participants in my writing seminars express surprise when I tell them that such phrases are sentence fragments and, as such, unacceptable in formal documentation.

Keep your fragments for those informal situations, and raise the bar when writing memos, letters, and reports—and even those e-mails you expect to be widely read.


To purchase your copy of The Art of On-the-Job Writing by Philip Vassallo, click here: https://www.firstbooks.com/product_info.php?cPath=14&products_id=144