Point Lookout: a free weekly publication of Chaco Canyon Consulting
Volume 3, Issue 53;   December 31, 2003: Email Antics: II

Email Antics: II

by

Nearly everyone complains that email is a time waster. Yet much of the problem results from our own actions. Here's Part II of a little catalog of things we do that help waste our time.
The three large pyramids at Giza, from left to right: Menkaure, Khafre, Khufu.

The three large pyramids at Giza, from left to right: Menkaure, Khafre, and Khufu. The "Great Pyramid" is at the far right. All are visible from low Earth orbit. See this image taken by an astronaut in 2003. Photo by David McEachan.

When we waste time with email because of our own actions, complaining bitterly about email doesn't make much sense. To get control of email, we have to change how we work with it. Here's Part II of a little catalog of ways to waste time with email. See "Email Antics: I," Point Lookout for December 17, 2003, and "Email Antics: III," Point Lookout for January 14, 2004, for more.

Abuse the subject line
Opening a new topic by replying to a message to get their address, you forget to alter (or don't bother to alter) the subject line.
This makes searching for the topic confusing later on. Remember that the subject line is the most important part of the message.
Leave the subject line blank
Leaving the subject line blank forces recipients to read your message with little or no idea of what it's about. They can't order your message by priority; they have no context in mind when they start reading. If they get only a few messages per day, this is no problem, but if they get hundreds, as many of us now do, many will probably assign a low priority to your message. Maybe that's OK, maybe not.
Check for new email too frequently
Either bored or avoiding something difficult or distasteful, you decide to check email. If you're bored, read a good book instead, or get some exercise. If you're avoiding something, get it done — or ask for help. See "Help for Asking for Help," Point Lookout for December 10, 2003.
Reply to nonurgent email immediately, just because it's easy
Wasting time is OK,
but complaining bitterly
about what we ourselves
are doing isn't
See "Checking for new email too frequently." There's another possibility for this one: you need to feel like you're finishing something. In that case, try finishing a very tiny piece of something more important. See "Figuring Out What to Do First," Point Lookout for June 4, 2003.
Check for new email automatically, instead of when you're interruptible
Most email readers offer automatic inbox checking as an option. Turn it off. Right away. Take charge of your own interruptions. See "Time Management in a Hurry," Point Lookout for November 12, 2003.
Reply without context
Someone sends you a few paragraphs, including some questions, and you reply with "Not that I know of," but you don't include any part of the original message. This makes it difficult for the recipient to figure out what question your answer answers. Include enough context to make that clear.
Reply with too much context
When you reply, include a complete copy of the message you received. The next person after you does the same, and so on, until the message is so big that if bytes were rocks, you'd have a down payment on the Great Pyramid. Remove from your replies any portion of the sender's message that isn't relevant to your reply.

If you do some of these, and you'd like to stop, tack this list on your wall. Highlight the ones you want to avoid, and review it once in a while to see how you're doing. Be patient, expect lapses, and celebrate your victories.  Email Antics: I First issue in this series   Email Antics: III Next issue in this series  Go to top Top  Next issue: There Are No Micromanagers  Next Issue

101 Tips for Writing and Managing EmailAre you so buried in email that you don't even have time to delete your spam? Do you miss important messages? So many of the problems we have with email are actually within our power to solve, if we just realize the consequences of our own actions. Read 101 Tips for Writing and Managing Email to learn how to make peace with your inbox. Order Now!

Where There's Smoke There's EmailAnd if you have organizational responsibility, you can help transform the culture to make more effective use of email. You can reduce volume while you make content more valuable. You can discourage email flame wars and that blizzard of useless if well-intended messages from colleagues and subordinates. Read Where There's Smoke There's Email to learn how to make email more productive at the organizational scale — and less dangerous. Order Now!

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          human being. No machine intelligence was involved in any way.Thank you for reading this article. I hope you enjoyed it and found it useful, and that you'll consider recommending it to a friend.

This article in its entirety was written by a human being. No machine intelligence was involved in any way.

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