Contents

  1. Attention: Executives and Professionals - discover how to clear your intray quickly. Special Offer on the new RocketReader Professional.
  2. More Secrets of Reading and Managing Email including Email Netiquette here
  3. RocketReader Kids Version 3 out now
  4. Product Manuals - Now available for download
reading email Discover how to clear your intray quickly

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More Secrets of Reading and Managing Email including Email Netiquette

Introduction

spam This is the second part of our series on reading and managing email. Part 1, The Golden Secrets of Reading and Managing Email, covered day-to-day handling of email and management of your inbox. Click here to read Part 1.

Managing the Email Dragon

Whilst there has been a growth in alternative forms of communication such as text and instant messaging, blogging and social networking, email is still widely used, particularly in the business community.

Email allows people to receive communication and respond in their own time. This is particularly important in today's global economy where the sender and recipient may be operating in different time zones. It is also more formal than instant messaging, blogging and social network communications. Formality is generally required when communicating with clients and in business to business communications.

Most information workers spend more than one and half hours per day (over 20% of work time) dealing with email (Information Worker Productivity Institute Research). Office workers may receive and send 50 to 250 messages a day. An estimated six trillion business email messages were sent by business users in 2006 (Ferris Research).

message monster

Are you in control of your in-box? Or, does your in-box control you? Are you scared of your in-box? Scared of the beast? Are you losing sleep worrying about you in-box?

So, how do you manage your email and avoid information overload and reduce stress? How do you control your in-box? How do you tame the beast?

Time Batching

Many workers check their email multiple times a day. Some workers check every few minutes. In such cases, email is a distraction and interrupts work flow and productivity. Indeed, field trials for a Hewlett- Packard study found that there was a ten point fall in IQ of workers distracted by email. This is equivalent to missing a whole night's sleep.

Batching email is more effective than dealing with emails as and when they are received. You are not constantly interrupted and do not waste time switching from one task to another. If you are distracted by the pop-up advising you that a new email has been received, turn the email notification feature off.

What is the optimal way to handle email? Allocate set times to handle your email each day. Do not look at it until then. Half past eleven in the morning is a good time to deal with your overnight email. Why? You get to spend a few solid hours focusing on your work early in the day. You can work without having to worry about the demands raised by your overnight email. Also, set aside a time in the late afternoon to process any email received during the day.

Action Batching

Whenever possible, action an email as soon as you have read it. If the task should be performed by someone else, forward the email to them straight away and delegate the task to them. Enter calendar dates immediately and arrange any necessary meetings straight away. This saves you from having to search for and read the email again.

If you cannot respond to an email immediately, advise the recipient that you have received the email and indicate when they can expect a response. Then transfer this task to your 'To Do' list, so it doesn't get overlooked.

If you receive email from multiple senders requiring the same or a similar response, batch these tasks and perform them together to save time. Use templates and standard text which you can cut and paste and vary as required to save time. Preset your address and contact details to appear on all outgoing email.

Be Exact about the Subject

Sloppy email subjects may be overlooked, confused with spam and result in missed meetings and wasted time. Therefore, it is essential that you are specific about the subject of the email. Having a concise description is also good email etiquette. The subject should be clear and meaningful. The subject matter should identify any action required and by whom, when and where (if appropriate). For example:-

Subject: Attn: Synergy project team - Project review meeting April 5 3 pm Rm 2

This assists the recipient to prioritize the email, make calendar entries and also delineates the email from any spam received. Below are some further example email subjects, good and bad:

GoodBad
CRC meeting: May 5 2 pm Boardroommeet
Where is the Dexter Inc dossier?QUESTION
J Aldus' travel plans to CA for your approval by Feb 28 For your approval
Good Inc report required by 3 pm May 7When will it be ready?
Reminder: All Staff - Meeting today May 14 1 pm Rm 1To all staff

Addressing Correctly

Knowing how to properly send, forward and exchange information by email is essential for courtesy, work flow and legal reasons.

Use the To field to send an email to the intended recipient of the message. To indicates that action is required by the recipient.

Cc stands for carbon copy. Use Cc if you want to inform a third party that the email has been sent to the intended recipient but you do not expect the third party to reply or act. For example, if you wish to advise Ryan (your supervisor) that you have emailed John (your work colleague) and you want John to see that Ryan has been notified. message in bottle

Bcc stands for blind carbon copy. Bcc is used to advise a third party of the email without disclosing to the intended recipient that the email has also been sent to the third party. For example, if you wish to advise Ryan that you have emailed John and you don't want John to see that you have notified Ryan.

Bcc can also used to send a message to multiple parties without disclosing the other recipients or their email addresses. You can do this in two ways:

  1. Addressing a message to yourself and filling in the intended recipients in the Bcc field.
  2. Creating a mailing list. An intended recipient will receive an email addressed to them but will be unable to see the emails of the other recipients.

Bcc is a useful tool for maintaining privacy of email addresses. With Bcc recipients cannot see the email address of the other email recipients. With To and Cc all recipients can see the email addresses of recipients in the To and Cc fields.

Be savvy and exercise some caution before clicking on that send button. Daniel clicked on the wrong mailing list when sending an email and advised everybody in a large government department that he was taking annual leave on certain dates. Daniel subsequently sent another email recalling his earlier email.

Double check that you have selected the intended recipient or mailing list and the right fields (To, Cc, Bcc) before clicking the send button. Train yourself as to how your email software management package (e.g. Outlook, Thunderbird) implements terms such as Bcc. Doing so may save you considerable embarrassment and, importantly, respect privacy obligations.

Email Netiquette

What is netiquette? Netiquette is the conventions of courtesy and conduct observed on the internet. Rules of conduct on the internet vary depending on the forum or the mode of communication. Email has its own netiquette. Failure to follow netiquette may irritate and offend. In some instances by breaching netiquette you may also breach the law and jeopardize your employment.

Posting

Posting styles include top-posting (replying above the original email), bottom-posting (replying below the original email) or interleaved posting (replying under each segment in the original email).

Top posting is the most common form used in business email correspondence and the most convenient. This means that the recipient can easily see the latest response and any new correspondent included in the discussion can pick up the thread or history of the discussion. Bottom posting is inconvenient and may mean your reply is missed, if the receiver fails to scroll down. Interleaved posting is sometimes used in email and can be useful. For example, when responding to a series of questions, it is easy to reply under each question.

Dos and Don'ts of Email