Article by: Abhik Biswas, Technology Evangelist and Entrepreneur, previously worked for
Cisco Systems, Computer Associates, Hewlett Packard etc. Chief Marketing Officer
at CommGate, Inc. (www.commgate.net)
Published on
Extraordinary Lives, Volume 3 Issue 7, 2007.
Being the owner of your own
business, everyone wants a piece of you. So they send you email. It makes you
feel important. Don't you love it? Really? Then, please take some of mine! More
than 100 real emails come in each day. At three minutes apiece, it will take
five hours just to read and respond. Let's not even think about the messages
that take six minutes of work to deal with. Shudder. I'm buried in email and
chances are, you're not far behind. For whatever reason, everyone feels
compelled to keep you 'in the loop.'
Readers Bear the Burden
Before email, senders
shouldered the burden of mail. Writing, stamping and mailing a letter was a lot
of work. Plus, each new addressee meant more stationary cost and postage, so we
thought hard about whom to send things to.
With free sending to an
infinite number of people now a reality, every little thought and impulse
becomes instant communication. Our most pathetic meanderings become deep
thoughts that we happily blast to six dozen colleagues who surely can't wait.
On the receiving end, we collect these gems of wisdom from the dozens around
us. The result: Inbox overload.
Taming email means training the
senders to put the burden of quality back on themselves.
How to Send Better Email
What's the best way to train
everyone around you to better email habits? You guessed it: You go first.
First, you say, "In order for me to make you more productive, I'm going to
adopt this new policy to lighten your load..." Demonstrate a policy for a
month, and if people like it, ask them to start doing it too.
Use a subject line to
summarize, not describe. People scan their inbox by subject. Make your subject
rich enough that your readers can decide whether it's relevant. The best way to
do this is to summarize your message in your subject.
You're probably sending email
because you're deep in thought about something. Your reader is, too, only
they're deep in thought about something else. Even worse, in a multi-person
conversation, messages and replies may arrive out of order. And no, it doesn't
help to include the entire past conversation when you reply; it's rude to force
someone else to wade through ten screens of messages because you're too lazy to
give them context. So, start off your messages with enough context to orient
your reader.
What They Should Do
When you copy lots of people (a
practice that should be used sparingly), mark out why each person should care.
Just because you send a message to six poor co-workers doesn't mean all six
know what to do when they get it. Ask yourself why you're sending to each
recipient, and let them know at the start of the message what they should do
with it. Big surprise, but this also forces you to consider why you're
including each person.
Use separate messages rather
than bcc (blind carbon copy). If you bcc someone 'just to be safe,' think
again. Ask yourself what you want the 'copied' person to know, and send a
separate message if needed. Yes, it's more work for you, but if we all do it,
it's less overload.
Make it Clear
Make action requests clear. If
you want things to get done, say so. Clearly. There's nothing more frustrating
as a reader than getting copied on an email and finding out three weeks later
that someone expected you to pick up the project and run with it. Summarize
action items at the end of a message so everyone can read them at one glance.
Separate topics into separate
emails... up to a point. If someone sends a message addressing a dozen topics,
some of which you can respond to now and some of which you can't, send a dozen
responses - one for each topic. That way, each thread can proceed unencumbered
by the others.
Edit forwarded messages. If
someone sends you a message, don't forward it along without editing it. Make it
appropriate for the ultimate recipient, and make sure it doesn't get the
original sender in trouble.
When scheduling a call or
conference include the topic in the invitation. It helps people prioritize and manage
their calendar more effectively.
One Page or Less
Make sure your email one page
or less. Make sure the meat of your email is visible in the preview pane of
your recipient's mailer. That means the first two paragraphs should have the
meat. Many people never read past the first screen, and very few read pass the
third.
Understand how people prefer to
be reached and how quickly they respond. Some people are so buried under email
that they can't reply quickly. If something's important, use the phone or make
a follow up phone call. Do it politely; a delay may not be personal. It might
be that someone's overloaded. If you have time-sensitive information, don't
assume people have read the email you sent three hours ago rescheduling the
meeting that takes place in five minutes. Pick up the phone and call.
Your Only Solution is to Take Action
Yeah, Yeah, you have a million
reasons why these ideas can never work in your workplace. Hogwash. I use every
one of them and can bring at least a semblance of order to my inbox.
