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Managing email

More and more, daily work starts with email. In some ways, the availability of instant communication to one or a group of people is an enormous convenience, helping accomplish tasks efficiently. However, the sheer volume of email communication can eat away at your day, interrupting ongoing tasks, and getting in the way of what you need to do. This month's Tips focuses on how to maximize the benefits and minimize the intrusion of email, along with some basic email etiquette and ideas on organizing past correspondence.

An Email Schedule to Fit Your Needs

Email is designed for your convenience. This is as opposed to, for example, the insistent ring of the phone or someone walking into your office. However, most people allow email to interrupt their flow of work instead of scheduling their review and responses. This is exacerbated by audible or visual signals of incoming mail. To get the most from your email, schedule your access at your convenience, and turn off the "incoming" signals.

To break the pattern of continuous interruption, try looking at your email three times a day-first thing, at lunchtime, and an hour before the end of the day. Triage what you see. Immediately delete the trash and respond to urgent issues that don't require more than a few minutes of your time. Urgent issues that require consideration go into an "Urgent" folder. You can ponder them as you gather relevant data, and respond when you've had a chance to think them over, or talk to colleagues. Everything else should go into a pending folder so you can review and respond when you have the time.

We all have periods during the day when our energy is at low ebb. That's a good time to take care of the pending folder. You can accomplish something, but not use your most valuable work time to do it. This way, answering the mail can provide a welcome break from the task at hand.

Organizing Mail

Keeping email organized so you can easily find what you need also helps maximize its value. Make it a policy to clear out your In and Sent mail boxes each time you use them, or at least by the end of the day. If you're using Outlook, create a series of folders in the "Archive" section as opposed to your Personal folders. I create project and client folders, a reference folder for useful information pertaining to my work, etc. I also keep old mail I've sent, either in the relevant project folder or if I'm pressed for time (which is almost always), simply in an "Old sent mail" folder, which I store in quarterly subdivisions: Jan-March 2002 for example. Anything I don't think I'll need but that isn't obvious trash I keep in an "Old trash" folder, also subdivided by year and by quarter. Storing these communications ensures you have what you need. Organizing them makes it easier to quickly find that elusive but critical communication. Also, keeping your In, Deleted, and Sent mail folders empty keeps your mail application working smoothly.

Naming Conventions

The subject line is another underused or misused email feature. How many times have you had to search for an old email buried among messages labeled with a completely irrelevant subject that dates from four emails ago? Use the subject line to succinctly define the subject of the email. Don't rely on your email program's "Re: xxx" to define the subject. If you've moved on to a new topic, enter a new subject. The subject should convey as clearly as possible what you're writing about. For example: "Suggestion about Word templates," as opposed to "Formatting issues."

Short, Readable Communications

Considering that one of the key advantages of email is speed, design your emails to contain key information within one screen. If you notice that you've got more than one screen, consider an attachment or a link, making the topic and any key information clear in the first few sentences. This helps others get the key information quickly, and the rest when they have time.

Don't sacrifice basic politeness, standard capitalization and punctuation, or good grammar, however. Just because it's email, does not exempt a communication from these rules. Despite the fact that email seems to lend itself to flaming, angry emails don't enhance your professional image.

Some speedy conventions have found their way into acceptable emailese. These include dropping letters our of words (thru and shd are common), as well as BTW (by the way), EOD (end of day), IMHO (in my humble opinion), etc. These are helpful shortcuts as long as you're not turning your email into acronym soup. For example: BTW IMHO this shd be done by EOD.

As you write your email, keep in mind that most professionals get between 20 and 200 emails a day. If you want yours to be read and answered, keep it to the point-don't ramble. With a nod to Hume, business email should be clear, polite, and short.