Love it or hate it, email isn’t going anywhere. Make it work for you.

Sarah Redmond
Aug 9, 2017 · 7 min read

Even with the plethora of digital messaging mediums out there, email is still used as the predominant business communication tool. Shouldn’t we use it better? Shouldn’t our email work for us?

In my years of working with and training on how to use email appropriately, I’ve come across a few golden rules…

Unsubscribe — This one can’t be stressed enough. If you don’t read something that’s coming to you from a mailing list, don’t just delete it. Take the 8 seconds and scroll to the bottom, then hit “Unsubscribe”. Clear out your cognitive overwhelm every day and start with a clean slate.

Delete — You do not need to keep every email in a conversation trail — just keep the last one that has the conversation in a trail anyway.

You do not need to keep every calendar invite — accept or decline and delete. Once it’s on your calendar, your email doesn’t need it.

You do not need to keep every note that anyone has thought to send you — keep messages that hold key information and lose the rest. Copy the message in to a word doc if it’s really important.

You do not need to keep attachments — open and save the attachments in a file structure that makes sense, then delete the attachment from the message (this saves on much needed drive space, too)

You do not need to keep every message you send (especially those asking for a response) — keep responses, delete the questions. Clear out your “Sent” file as often as you can.

Use Your Folders — Your Inbox shouldn’t be used as a catch all for every email you have ever received (and neither should your Sent Items folder for messages you send). Use your folders and move emails in to logical order as soon as you have read the information or completed the task. Try and keep your Inbox as empty as possible so that it contains only those messages that require action. Keeping this clear allows you to focus on the work at hand.

Turn Off Your Notifications — Having email notifications popping up on your desktop and phone is a distraction from the work that you are doing. Try and minimise disruption and make a note to check in with email every so often. Don’t enslave yourself. Be more efficient.

Use Email for the Non-Urgent Only — Before you hit send, ask yourself — is this urgent? If you have an urgent issue, email is possibly not the right medium — think about a phone call, a face to face conversation or text message. Do not expect other people to drop everything just because you send something with a High Importance flag (some people aren’t as tied to their inbox as you). Sending an email doesn’t send responsibility!

Respond in a Timely Fashion — You should do your best to respond to all of your emails as quickly as possible (within 24 hours generally) even if it’s just to acknowledge that you have received and will get back to them when you have the time / information.

By not responding promptly you can be seen to be unorganised, uncaring or inefficient. Worse still, if your competitors are responding quickly, you’ve lost the race before you’ve even started.

Write First, Address Later — It’s always a good habit to write the content of the email first and finalise BEFORE you address it. This stops you from accidentally sending the email before it’s ready and including all the right people once the message has been crafted.

Use the Draft and Schedule Functions — Did you know that you don’t have to send your emails immediately? Closing an unfinished email prompts you to save a draft so that you can return to finishing your thought when you have more clarity or information.

Using a Delay Delivery function let’s you determine when you want the email sent, so you can write a beautifully crafted email well ahead of time (it sits in your Drafts file to edit if needed) and it automatically sends for you. (check your client “help” for how to complete)

Include a Clear & Direct Subject Line — Examples of a good subject line include “Meeting date changed,” “Quick question about your presentation,” or “Suggestions for the proposal.”

If you are forwarding an email, think about the subject line — will you and your recipient be able to logically search for the contents or purpose of the message? Does it adequately sum up the issue? Change the subject line when forwarding so that it makes sense.

Formality — Email is an informal means of communication and it’s very easy to send messages without thinking too hard, but consider your audience and err on the side of formality. If it’s a work email, consider that your HR team may read this in a dispute.

Formatting — It’s likely that your recipient is reading the email you send them on a different device than you sent it on (phone, tablet, laptop, desktop, watch…) so be wary with overdoing the formatting.

Use standard fonts (Arial or Calibri as standard — all email clients have these installed) and standard formatting options (bold, underline, italic, bullets, numbered lists) where possible.

Don’t break lines of text to fit the width of your screen (allow it to wrap), use a standard left alignment and write in paragraphs — your recipients system will wrap the text as best suits their device.

Do not use all caps or large bold font to make a point. Resist the urge.

Long Emails — Try not to write anything more than a few paragraphs, but if you do, break an email down in to clear headings and subheadings and make sure in the first (opening) paragraph, you summarise and tell people what you want them to do with the information. Do they need to respond? Comment? Bring it with them to their next meeting? Give approval? Let them know what and when so they are more likely to read.

Attachments — If you are sending something more than one or two small documents, beware of the size restrictions at your recipient end and consider breaking in to a few emails or asking your recipient how they would like to receive the files. Many email clients (especially corporate) cannot deal with more than 5MB per message, so a document delivery service or cloud drive may be appropriate.

Refrain from inserting large pictures or using large print, as it overwhelms a small screen and never works quite right when reading on a mobile.

Spell Check — It may not matter to you that an email comes to you with a spelling error, but for lot of people, bad spelling equals carelessness and disrespect. Be sure to have your spell checker turned on at all times and use it — a few extra seconds can make a huge difference. (you have a grammar checker too)

Only include a cc to others at the beginning or end of an email trail — Your manager or colleague doesn’t want to read every single part of the conversation around an issue, just one that the issue has been acknowledged and sent to the correct person, then one when it is resolved (unless they specifically ask to be cc’ed in to everything).

Similarly, don’t cc in everyone when you respond to a question just because they have been cc’ed from the sender — use cc sparingly and with caution. Be respectful of everyone’s time.

Think twice before hitting “Reply All” — No one wants to get caught in a never ending “Reply All” email group. Refrain from hitting “reply all” unless you really think everyone on the list needs to receive the email.

For example, if one person is sending out a group email asking for opinions or information, reply to the one person only, and let them update everyone on the results at the end. Be mindful of the groups time.

Read the Entire Trail — If you are forwarding a message to someone, read the ENTIRE trail to ensure that you are only sending them information they need to know for the issue at hand. Remove any messages that aren’t relevant (especially any that are incriminating or inappropriate) and consider whether summarising and sending a new email might be a better option.

Do not use BCC — Aside from the rudeness of inviting someone in to a conversation who your other recipients don’t know about, it erodes trust and isn’t professional. Plus if they hit “Reply All” to respond, then the jig is up!

The only time BCC is acceptable is when you are sending to a very large email group where everyone is BCC’ed. This ensures people cannot “Reply All” or know who else the message has been sent to.

Using Out of Office — If you aren’t going to be replying to emails for a day, use your Out of Office function, but treat it like a professional communication — thank them, give them information of when you will be away from emails, when you are likely to return and what to do if the issue is urgent. Make sure you choose the option to reply to both internal and external emails.

Treat email with a structure and purpose and you’ll get your time back under control quickly. Remember that email is just a communication tool — you have permission to use it as best fits your working style and company, so don’t be afraid to experiment and see what works best.

Sarah Redmond
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