5 rules for more efficient emails
Email is a part of our daily lives. If it’s not personal, it’s business. It’s become the main way we communicate. I have to use both hands when I count the number of email address I have. It’s a curse really.
So while this post won’t show you how to get your inbox down to zero (I have over 25,000 emails there now) it WILL give you five ways to communicate more effectively and efficiently.
RULE 1: Reply All. Please.
Pay attention to who all has been copied (“CC’d”, “Carbon Copied”, or “Courtesy Copied”- however you choose to say it). If you see an address there, then chances are they need to know what’s going on; what’s being said. Instead of hitting “reply” get in the habit of hitting, “reply all.” This will ensure that everyone copied will see your portion of the conversation. Otherwise they have to get it from someone else when they could have (should have) gotten from you in the first place. Keyword: efficiency
We created a culture at Gradient Overlay that Tracie ALWAYS got copied on everything coming and going from me. It was her job to know where we were on projects and that was communicated 98% via email. Now, if she could only have been copied on voicemails.
Exception: don’t reply all if you want to talk privately to one individual or if your conversation goes off topic. Keep it short and professional in front of others. Talk about the UPS man in a private email that I’m not copied on.
RULE 2: Be assertive when making appointments.
I need to improve on this and I’m getting better. This idea actually came from @natebailey. Instead of saying, “Hey let’s grab a drink sometime”, take it step further and say, “Hey let’s grab a drink sometime. Here are three dates and times that work for me *list them out*.” This cuts out the ambiguity and will save about three back-and-forth “what works for you” emails.
RULE 3: Communicate with your signature.
If you don’t have an email signature it’s time you made one. This is super easy and is highly effective. At the bottom of your email, after you type your name, create a few lines of text that have ALL of your contact information at the bottom in a format that’s easily readable. I’m talkin’ name, title, company name, website, phone numbers (office, fax and cell if you want). See below for an example of mine. It’s everything you need to know in one quick glance:
Also, set your email client to show this on EVERY email. Sometime folks opt out to having their signature appear on replies, but really it needs to be on every email. I’m neither a hunter, nor a gatherer so please don’t make me do that for your information.
RULE 4: Use formatting styles.
I get a lot of emails that are chocked full of to-dos and details that I need to pay attention to. This is where paragraphs, bullets, bolding, italics, etc come into play.
Remember, people can’t hear your tone and can’t read your mind. Be as clear and concise as possible. Formatting makes emails and to-dos much easier to handle and take in.
• Indented
• bulleted
• laundry lists
• like this
• are awesome!
RULE 5: Resend attachments anyway, just in case.
For every 10 emails I send out I probably send out 2 followups:
“Hey (client name), Just checking in to make sure you received the proposal for your new branding and identity system. I haven’t heard back so I’ve attached it again just in case you missed it. Thanks!”
or
“Hey (client name), I haven’t received a deposit yet for your website project and never got confirmation that you got the invoice. Here it is again in case it fell off on the way over. Thanks!”
Notice how in each scenario I didn’t wait for a response back to whether or not they got the attachment in the first place, I just sent it onto them anyway. This is acceptable with attachments smaller that 2MB. Anything beyond that will start to fill up their inbox.
So those are five things I’ve seen and discovered over the years doing what I do. Are there other things you’ve noticed that pertain to this? I’d love to get your feedback and add them to the list.
