It’s a jungle out there. E-mail has become the dominant form of business communication—the average worker in corporate America receives 133 messages a day. Despite its popularity, people point to e-mail as one of the major causes of work-related stress. People cite lack of organization, no clear purpose, missing information, harsh tone, poor grammar, and overuse as the primary reasons that e-mail fails to make the grade as a productivity tool. As a result, the average worker spends almost their entire day just trying to keep up with e-mail.
Here are several guidelines for making e-mail a more productive tool.
Select e-mail carefully. Think about your message and your recipient and decide if e-mail is the BEST choice to do the job. Employees often use e-mail when a phone call, face-to-face dialogue, or group meeting would have worked better.
Grab the reader in your subject line. Your e-mail is competing with a frenzy of other messages, so write a descriptive subject line. For example, Upcoming Meeting could be rewritten to read Product Launch Meeting on September 9.
Give the reader an early payoff. Organize the message with an opening sentence that states your purpose for writing and action needed. In the next paragraph, present necessary details, but be concise. Finally, use the closing paragraph to outline what has to be done, by whom, and when. A call to action makes it easier for your reader to reply.
Use a constructive tone. Readers misinterpret many messages because of a harsh or neutral tone. Add constructive words that enhance the message, such as please, thank you, look forward to, etc. Likewise, avoid negative words that destroy tone, such as fail to, never, lack of, can’t, etc.
Be accurate. Always take the time to proofread and correct all errors. Check your facts, and make sure you didn’t leave out any important details that would require costly re-communication.
Check e-mail at set intervals. Avoid the addiction to replying immediately; 24 hours for a reply is the rule of thumb. If you need an instant response, use the phone or meet face-to-face. Consider disabling the mail desktop alert in Outlook 2003. Go to Tools > Options, click on E-mail Options, then on Advanced E-mail Options. Uncheck the ‘Display a New Mail Desktop Alert’ checkbox.
Adhere to best practices. Here are five general e-mail etiquette guidelines.
1. Use an appropriate salutation (Dear Bob, Hi Anne) and use an automated signature line with your contact information.
2. Cut your “Cc” list to just those readers who need to be informed of the message but who do not need to take action.
3. Use the “urgent” notation sparingly.
4. In general, don’t reply just for the sake of acknowledging a message or saying Thank You.
5. Don’t send angry messages. Take time to cool off and then review and revise your message.
Debra Hamilton is president of Creative Communications & Training, Inc. She writes on communication topics and designs training and coaching programs to improve communication, teambuilding, and leadership. Visit her website for more information or sign up for her free monthly e-newsletter, Communication Guru, at http://businesslunchandlearn.com
Tags: communication check, corporate america, descriptive subject line, harsh tone, mail, misinterpret, necessary details, negative words, neutral tone, opening sentence, paragraph, poor grammar, product launch, productive tool, productivity tool, reply, survival strategies, that would require, upcoming meeting, work related stress
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