Tips for effective emailing

Email wastes too much of our time. It's not just because of the volume of email. Poorly worded or unnecessary emails distract us and cost us time. According to a recent article on MSNBC.com, workers who are interrupted by emails or phone calls can't just get right back on track. It can take 10 to 20 times the length of the interruption to do so. (For more, see “‘Reply All' can lower worker productivity.” )

And yet, we need email to get things done more quickly. Here are some tips for helping your own productivity and getting the right kind of attention for your emails:

To help yourself:

• Understand that people read emails for quick communications.  Want your reader to spend time on a subject?  Write a separate memo or schedule a meeting.  We prepare ourselves for different types of documents.  We might be willing to spend hours on a thick book or report that we think of as 'serious reading' -- but only seconds on the same platform we use to read and share jokes and images.
  
• Schedule yourself times to respond to email, and avoid checking email outside of those times.
• If you have to check email throughout the day, open those that are from people you need to respond to quickly (such as your supervisor), or those dealing with critical projects.
• If you're part of a team project, and you see a lot of ‘reply all' emails from various team members, consider asking for a conference call or meeting. The extended conversations may be a sign of tension that is best resolved in person or by phone.
• Organize your emails, so that you can easily respond to high priority items first.  I use a system developed by David Allen, the author of Getting Things Done.  But you may find a different system works better for you.  
  

 To help others:

• Understand that everything you ask someone to read is more work for them. Would you want them giving you more work, if it doesn't benefit you?
  
• Never, ever send an email without a subject line. It is like asking a busy person for a meeting without any reason.
• Let your reader know in the subject line if something is URGENT, you want the reader to PLEASE REPLY, or the email is just FYI.
• Use strong verbs and precise nouns in your subject. “URGENT: Please help Joe on the budget” is stronger than “Re: Help”
• Keep your emails to one topic. If you can't, use subheadings (such as I do with PDI News), to let your readers know that the email has several parts. We have become used to using email for quick communication, and to seeing obligatory language (e.g., “This communication is intended for the recipient only…”). So when there are breaks for paragraphs, many people drop their attention.
• If you're going to change the topic in an ongoing conversation, do not simply hit “reply.” Put a new subject line, or compose a new email. Otherwise, your readers may think you're just continuing an old discussion. If they're ready to move on, your email may go nowhere. 

--Leonardo Vazquez, AICP/PP

 

lf you have a professional development tip you'd like to share, please send your tip to Leo Vazquez at vazquezl@rci.rutgers.edu.  Please also give us your full name, title and affiliation, so we can give you proper credit.