In the world of communication, e-mail is king. As much as people complain about email, as a tool to communicate an idea, its effectiveness unmatched. You can, free, send a message to someone for them to get it instantly. Email makes it easy to send over a note of thanks, a quick question, or a meeting invitation, when before it was widely used, would take an entire support system to get to people.
There are no limits to what it can contain, and except in very rare instances, the message can reach anyone. Steve Jobs used to personally check his email. Another author I respect greatly, Seth Godin, does as well. In 2015, you don’t ever have to go too far to get a message to someone.
With that said, I hate bad email. Bad email is the reason Inbox Zero is a thing, “Email For Dummies” exists, and why you get a fresh heart palpitation every time your phone goes ding (which is a terrible thing, turn those notifications off!). The problem 99% of us have with email comes down to two things: One, we don’t know how to manage our own inboxes and two, we don’t know how to write a good email.
Here are 3 tips for both email management and writing email that will make your life easier.
Email Management
- Use Rules, Use Them Relentlessly – If you use Outlook they are rules, Gmail they are filters. If you look at any of your email programs they have a tool to do your email sorting for you. I love the idea of Sturgeons Law, meaning that 90% of what you get is crap, when it comes to what comes into your inbox. The plan is to make sure that only the actionable hits your inbox, and everything else has its own home, one you can go to when you need it.
- Implementation Strategy: Pay attention to your email over the last week. If there is anything that a company sent as a “FYI”, something that you don’t ever want to respond to (newsletters), or reference items (travel information) give them their own folders .
- Simplify and Systemize – As your actionable email goes up, your need to keep things simple will as well. By using a systematic approach, every improvement builds your efficiency.
- Implementation Strategy: Pay attention to any responses you send often. Make them email signatures(Outlook) or create a system shortcut (everything else) with any of the programs (Phrase Express) that allows the user to turn phrases into entire paragraphs. This makes emails that take minutes turn into seconds – and makes you look like a hero.
- For The Love of God Distance – Email can turn into ping-pong. Make sure you create distance when you email by turning off your notifications and responding at specific times. I have never met someone who responded to an email 6 hours later lose a job.
- Implementation Strategy: Turn off all notifications and set a bright rule to check email at certain times. I prefer in the middle of the day and before I go to bed(flexible).
Writing Good Email
- Brevity is king – 3 Sentences – not all emails can fit into this concept, but most can.
- Implementation Strategy: Think about your email and cut as much out as possible.
- Do Not Write Emotions – Recognize people cannot read your emotion through an email. Depending on what is happening in the life of the recipient, an email looking to bring up their self-esteem may turn into a threatening one. Learn how to focus on the message and save emotion for when you get face to face.
- Implementation Strategy: Keep email simple and remove anything that could get misconstrued. Focus on the incident and leave everything else out of it.
- Keep It In Context – People miss context often. This sounds like I am contradicting myself with the first point, but I have recognized at my best, the emails that have lasting impact do so with labeling context and keeping things short and sweet. It is easier to get to the action.
- Implementation Strategy: Before you even start the email – ask yourself what you want and write it in a text file. Look at it, and use it as a reference. I.E If I wanted a meeting with John Doe, I would add Meeting with John Doe, time and place, in the text file, and make sure that I had both when I write the email and before I send the email.
We are capable. Email isn’t a dragon that needs slaying, it creates great value to people who use it effectively. Everyone can use a great lesson in this skill and something we all can work on. Like all things email continues to evolve, and if we don’t grow, we can end up losing out on the wonderful benefits of email. We are at our best when we communicate effectively, and as I said, in the world of communication, email is king. Use it responsibly, and the world is your castle.
From the desk of Adam Thomas 