First, let me say that I’m terrible at controlling my e-mail. I can’t control my e-mail any better than I can control the rain. I can’t control
- who sends it,
- what comes in it,
- when it will arrive,
- where it will eventually go or
- why it comes to me.
However I can control how I will respond to it; and I do that very rarely (maybe 1 out of 100).
To increase your chances of of being in the 1% that evokes a reply, you will need to follow the e-mail rules:
- Keep it short. Less is more. Don’t ramble. Do not be to wordy and use too many more words than required. I’ll likely stop reading after the third sentence. If it is too long to read in < 30 seconds I’ll probably tag it to read it later; which I’ll likely do much later or never.
- If it is that important, pick up the phone or find me. Don’t send a followup e-mail asking me to reply to a previous one. If I didn’t reply to the first one, chances are I won’t notice the second. Also, don’t expect me to read your e-mail as soon as it comes in. On a good day I’ll process my inbox once.
- Craft a very clear and specific subject about what you expect from me. “[DUE Apr 15] Form 1040 for tax refund” stands a much better chance than “Please reply”.
- Give specific options when asking a question. Good: “Do you prefer to do a, b or c?”; Bad: “What would like to do?” This shows you’ve put some thought into a solution vs. deflecting to me for all the work.
- CC me only when I need a copy. You can help further by explaining why recipients were copied. “CC’d: in case you happen to get a call about this.”
- Summarize and crop the long threads. If I have to start at the bottom of the e-mail and read up to catch up, I’ll likely tag to read later (see rule #1).
- Limit links and attachments. First and foremost, these are one of the most prolific ways to spread malware. I’ll ONLY open one if I’m expecting it prior to receiving or when you confirm you sent outside of an e-mail. Whenever possible keep what’s germane to the e-mail IN the e-mail. Opening another application to receive what you’re communicating greatly reduces your chances you’ll beat the 30 second rule (see rule #1).
- Message body is not mandatory. You can keep your signature if you like, but no need to repeat or expand a concise and complete subject. “Complete your time sheets by Monday EOM NNTR”
A few common abbreviations help confirm this:- EOM = end of message
- NNTR = no need to reply
- TLDR = to long; didn’t read (typically used at top of thread)
- My thank you gift is less e-mail. Unless a response is required, I won’t acknowledge, thank you or otherwise communicate appreciation for your information. You can safely assume a well deserved “merci beaucoup” was mentally sent your direction and you just saved ~30 seconds of e-mail processing time in return for your efforts. If you’ll reciprocate, ¡muchas gracias!
- Weekends were made for mail hiatus. I batch process work e-mail at work; during working hours. I batch process personal e-mail on a personal and less predictable schedule; not just when I’m board. My “re-creation” time is a carefully guarded plan of what enjoyably edifies me; not a bailing out from the flood of unsolicited correspondence.
My intention in sharing these rules is not to preformulate an excuse for a missed obligation or dictate how you must structure all e-mail with me. However, I hope you’ll accept these rules as a mutual agreement to improve our communication. E-mail was born early in the information age and is still very much in its infancy; requiring many boundaries for good behavior. Just as much as I hope you’ll abide by these rules I hope you’ll also hold me accountable to abide by them as well.
Adapting these rules and my general philosophy that e-mail should be batched vs. promptly processed will likely lead to me missing something important. But not doing so guarantees that I will miss goals of what is most important for me to do.
This web page is likely not affiliated with the domain of the email that referenced it as this page can be linked to, posted and reused by anyone as they see fit.
Rules adapted from http://emailcharter.org
