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Answers about Managing E-mail
We've received several questions about managing e-mail. If our readers are anything like us here at TMI, your number of e-mails is growing exponentially. So, we're devoting last month and this month to e-mail. And if you have some good ideas that we could add to our list, why not e-mail them to us at: TmiUSA@aol.com Sending E-mail: Last month we discussed reading and responding to E-mail. This month we look at some protocol for sending e-mail. "Nobody has the rules down yet. People don't know what type of message to send for what. The things we use as enablers are abused and misunderstood and consume our lives and time. They make the stress level extremely high." A'isha Ajaya, Assistant Professor of Technology, Rochester Institute of Technology 1. Use good labels when you send e-mail messages. Don't just reply using the old label that was on the e-mail sent to you if the header no longer applies. I recently received a message that was labeled: Re: Re: Re: Re: CIAG. That e-mail message had been through a few renditions. 2. As a general rule, only put one major message per e-mail. This makes labeling easier, and your reader doesn't have to read the entire document to have a general sense as to what it contains. Keep your e-mail short. Attach relevant documents if you need more space. You can always send more than one e-mail. 3. Be careful with abbreviations. Not everyone knows what they mean (for example, IMHO means "In my humble opinion"), and your reader can feel stupid or left out, or worse yet, spend precious minutes asking others what these abbreviations mean. 4. And be sure you don't spam. Spamming is a word that comes by way of a Monty Python skit about Vikings setting out on a trip and stopping by for breakfast. They ask for spam and eggs, spam and bacon, spam and spam, spam with spam and eggs....etc. Spamming is the mass transmittal of unsolicited electronic messages. Very soon the practice be illegal. It's more a question of how spamming will be regulated, rather than if it will be regulated. It irritates the receiver, and you run the risk of getting spammed by thousands of irate e-mail users. The basic rule is never send e-mail unsolicitednever, ever! If someone spams you, save all the data from the leader and send it to your service provider. Spamming is often grounds for being kicked off the service. 5. Find out how your reader likes to have his or her e-mail labeled. Good headings include: Urgent (U), Information (I), Action Required (AR). Discuss at your meetings how a team of people can communicate clearly with their e-mail labels. 6. When you respond to an e-mail, make a clear reference to the note to which you are responding. I receive e-mails that say, "Glad to do it for you, Janelle." or "Yes, I'd love to." I wrote them an e-mail so many e-mail messages ago, I have no idea to what they are referring. 7. Should you copy the entire e-mail message to which you are responding? Some people do this. Personally, I don't like it. It means more text I have to scan through. There's no clear protocol on this yet. At the most, copy only the relevant portions of messages to which you are responding. 8. Don't automatically copy yourself on every message you send. It's more information to manage and sort through. 9. Don't immediately send an e-mail if you are unsure as to the impact of your message. Let it sit for a few hours and then send it. Once you hit that send button, you can't get it back! E-mail feels like informal conversation, but you don't have body language and voice tone to moderate the exactness of language. Lots of people are using smiley faces in their messages to soften impact. Personally, I prefer to be precise in my communication so I don't have to use those symbols. 10. Be careful what you forward. I get lots of e-mail messages that are clearly made up stories, warning alerts on viruses. Think it through. If it's unbelievable, then it probably is someone pulling a prank on the internet. Don't encourage it by passing it along to dozens of other people. 11. Don't send multiple forms of messages to peoplea voice mail, and a fax, and an e-mail. Let people know what your patterns of responding to e-mail are, so they feel comfortable that you have received the message. And if something requires a response, get back to the person so they aren't left wondering if you received the message in the first place. 12. Be judicious in your "forwarding" of e-mail. Just because it's easy to do, it doesn't mean it's a good idea. Would you take the time and trouble to photocopy a message and fax or mail it to someone? If the answer is "no," then chances are you shouldn't forward that e-mail message. Think of the reader's overload. 13. Use e-mail for quick updates, scheduling meetings, asking questions. Don't use it for information that will provoke a strong emotional response in the reader (such as firing someone!). E-mail, since it's read rather than listened to, appear harsher in tone than you intended. 14. Keep your messages businesslike. Check spelling and punctuation. E-mail reflects your company. Don't put something in e-mail that you wouldn't feel comfortable on corporate letterhead. 15. Remember, e-mail is not private. As Jenny McCune, e-mail expert says, e-mail is more like a postcard that anyone can read, rather than like a first class letter. 16. Don't write using all capitals. This is a simple one. It looks like you are shouting. But some people use it all the time and have no idea OF the impact of their messages. 17. Here's one I just discovered. Don't double space your e-mail
messages. If the reader wants to print out the document, it takes twice
as much paper to print the e-mail.
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