By Janis Fisher Chan
Janis Fisher Chan is the author of E-Mail: A Write It Well Guide—How to Write and Manage E-Mail in the Workplace. She can be reached through her Web site: www.writeitwell.com.
Athletic Management, 18.3, April/May 2006, http://www.momentummedia.com/articles/am/am1803/newmessages.htm
Do you suffer from e-mail overload? Not sure if you need to respond to every message that drops into your inbox? Wonder whether e-mail is the right way to get a certain point across?
If you answered yes to any of the above, you’re not alone. While e-mail is invaluable for communicating quickly and easily, it’s a tool without many established rules. And that can easily lead to problems in your department—from time management to professionalism to privacy concerns.
This article provides six tips on making the best use of your e-mail time. It can also be helpful in implementing e-mail guidelines for your staff.
Think before you write: Most of us begin writing an e-mail before we’ve even thought about what we want to say. The result is usually a poorly thought-out message that doesn’t communicate clearly and can easily lead to misunderstandings.
Your e-mail messages are more likely to get results if you take a minute or so to plan them. To begin, ask yourself: What’s your main point? Pretend you are running through airport security and have only 15 seconds to shout out your message. Whatever you would shout out is your main point. Put it at the beginning of your e-mail.
Also think about the reader’s point of view. We often write from our own perspective, without taking into account the reader’s needs, interests, and concerns. Consider these questions: Why should the reader do what you are asking? What information does the reader need? What background information does the reader not yet have?
It’s easy to zip off a quick e-mail about what is currently at the front of your mind. But the recipient may not be on the same wavelength. Remember to include those details that can quickly get you and whoever you are e-mailing on the same page.
Once you’ve got the text figured out, be sure to read over your e-mail before sending. What is the tone? If you were the reader, would it seem too abrupt? Too casual? Remember that ALL CAPS can sound like shouting, and all lowercase can be very hard to read.
Keep it professional: What image of the writer and his or her organization do you get from an e-mail that’s filled with errors or is written in slang? Even if you know the writer, you might get the impression that the person doesn’t care enough about you or the message to take the time to do it right. Resist the temptation to be overly casual, even when you’re writing to a friend or colleague. People forward e-mail messages to others, and that message to your basketball buddy might end up in your supervisor’s inbox.
A professional e-mail also uses the “reply” function appropriately:
• Include the original sender’s text so he or she can immediately refer to it (this is a default setting in many e-mail programs). It’s okay, however, to delete unnecessary messages that might be included at the end of the e-mail you’re replying to.
• Do not change the subject line unless you have completely changed the subject.
• If the original e-mail was sent to several people, think carefully about whether you need to hit “reply all.”
Control waste: E-mail inboxes around the world are clogged with messages that didn’t need to be sent. Think about it: How many messages did you get last week that you didn’t need? And how many did you send? Each unnecessary message wastes time, is likely to trigger an unnecessary response, and on and on.
Here’s how you can do your part to reduce the number of unnecessary messages:
• Trim your distribution list and send copies only to people who really need the information.
• When a topic requires discussion, pick up the phone instead of sending lots of back-and-forth e-mail messages.
• Don’t send that extra e-mail saying only, “Thanks for your message.”
• Resist the temptation to forward a message because you think it is “interesting.”
Understand the medium: Remember Mike Brown, the former FEMA director whose post-Hurricane Katrina e-mail messages about the best public image to project were broadcast across the country? Sending e-mail is not like sealing a letter in an envelope. Instead, it’s like shouting down the hall. Think carefully about possible consequences before you communicate via e-mail.
For example, e-mail should not be used for confidential or private information. People other than your intended recipient might easily see any e-mail you send. Ask yourself what might happen if someone published that information in the newspaper.
Sensitive topics should also not be discussed by e-mail. Without the clues you get from facial expressions, body language, or tone of voice, you might not realize that what you’ve communicated is hurtful or misleading.
Also know that humor can often backfire over e-mail. The casual quality of e-mailing makes it easy to forget that it can be the wrong place for jokes or “funny” stories. Some of the things that seem funny to you could offend others—not to mention get you and your department into lots of trouble.
Manage your e-mail: As e-mail use increases, messages can build up in your inbox with blinding speed. Ignoring them doesn’t make them go away, and deleting them is not always an option. Schedule a specific time every day to perform triage on your inbox. Then, during your e-mail time, act decisively. Immediately delete messages you don’t need to keep, take action on those that require a response, and file those you might need to find again.
Control your e-mail habit: For some of us, that little “ding” that signals the arrival of a new e-mail stimulates a Pavlovian response. We stop whatever we’re doing to check it right away. But experts have found that when we interrupt ourselves that way, we have a lot of trouble getting back to what we were doing, assuming we can even remember what it was. Hard as it might be, turn off your computer’s “you’ve got mail” signal, and use your schedule to check your e-mail.
Finally, keep in mind that e-mail is simply a tool to help us communicate more quickly and easily so we can achieve our goals. Like any tool, it works best when used wisely. Happy messaging!