I just was forwarded a great blog post about how one CIO manages the 600 e-mail messages he gets every day. I don't go through nearly as many e-mail in a day, but I think that these rules can apply to almost anyone.
The first rule he pointed out was:
1. E-mail marked with a “high importance” exclamation point must pass the “cry wolf” test. Is the sender a habitual “high importance” e-mailer? Are these e-mails actually important? If not, the sender's emails lose points.
I seem to rarely get messages with raised importance, and almost every time, it is about something that isn't important or time sensitive at all. It seems like most people don't think about what they are doing when it comes to e-mail. Most of the people I work with are very clear in their e-mail construction and I think one of the things I value most is that I've almost never received a "High Importance" e-mail from them. Most of the time, when an e-mail is tagged, it's because someone was sending out a joke or picture and added a "[HUMOR]" tag to the subject line.
It's the little things that will get your e-mail read by other people, so here are a couple of e-mail etiquette rules that I would like to post of my own.
- If you are sending me a forward, clean it up. I understand that there are only six degrees of separation, but I don't need to see the entire history of the e-mail thread. Sometimes this means that some significant work would have to be done, and if that's the case, I'd rather you NOT send it to me. If I think a forwarded message is that wonderful, I'll take the time to correct the formatting and remove all the junk. I could go on, but I think we all get the point.
- Use at least SOME punctuation. I know that most people think that typing (e-mail, text messages, IM, and blog posts) is a lesser form of communication and by that same logic, not in need of things like capital letters, periods and commas. This is not really the case, however. The more that an e-mail looks like it was typed by a cat walking on a keyboard, the more likely I am to just delete it without reading it.
- Know your target audience. I don't want to get too mired in spouting what I believe in, but I just have to say that I don't need any e-mail that an action of mine will cause more angles to do anything. I don't particularly want to have a "blessed" day, and I don't need any kind of inspirational messages. Those people who know me, should know that I am not interested in those things, and should, by expansion, know that I don't want to get e-mail about it.
- Make sure you include some context in a reply. I know that I said that I liked to clean up forwards, and I do like to clean up replies as well, but there still needs to be SOME context or continuity. It is very hard to respond to a request for information when you have no idea what the context of that request is in. The whole thread doesn't have to be preserved, but something will help!
- Think before you send. Yes, I'll repeat that; think before you send. Just because it is so important, I'll say it another way; don't send an e-mail until you've actually thought about it. Some people think about the e-mail while they are writing it, but I know from looking at my inbox, this is not the norm. It doesn't take much. Just look it over quickly, read it out loud, do SOMETHING to ensure that you aren't sending a raunchy link to the CEO or a ribald joke to your grandmother.
All that ranting and raving aside, e-mail is a communication tool. As a tool, I have the option of using it, or choosing something to use instead. You don't even have to make the e-mail interesting or new, just make it something that shows you've done more than reacted out of reflex. It doesn't take much!