In a recent blog post called Do Your Client Have Bad Work Habits, we learned one of the top ten worst work habits is being a sloppy emailer.  As a follow-up, I wanted to share what I think that means and how you can avoid it.   Email is not something we were taught how to do, it just entered our world and we started using it.  Now we use it every single day and abuse it in many cases.  Email is also one of the most common reasons our clients are getting very little completed in a day.   By leaving email open all day we are constantly reacting rather than proactively planning our days.  That’s an another post altogether. 

Anyway, in my opinion sloppy emailing is more than sloppy grammar.  If you are texting with a close friend, or even emailing a close friend, sure you can skip the grammar check.  But if you are in the work environment, be sure to spell and grammar check prior to sending.   I think that goes without saying so I am not going to even bother including that in my email rules to avoid sloppy emailing:

Use Descriptive Subject Line:  Your subject line can tell your reader how important the email is and the the context of the email. 

• Be clear and concise
• Be to the point
• Be descriptive
• Be informative
• Be specific
• Foreshadow the content to follow
• Avoid clever or cute headings

A great subject line is “Action:  Please submit your marketing plan to be my 5pm 5/15.

Skip The Long Paragraph Of Text:  I don’t know about you, but if an email is over a few lines I stop reading and therefore I am missing a lot of information.  Instead of a lot of text use short bullet points and indicate where actions are necessary with bold words like “Your action required.”

Limit Use Of Reply All:  I personally just wish this button would go away altogether, but since that is not likely we have to work together on this.  Before you hit that reply all button ask yourself if everyone really needs to know your thoughts, ideas or opinons.  For every email we send, we receive three in return.  If you send off an email to 20 people, think about how many emails that is in your inbox.   If you do have to send an email to a group, blind copy (BCC) everyone so reply all is not an option, or consider including verbiage: To save time, please reply only to me rather than hitting “Reply All”.

Use Email Lingo:   Again, no one has taught us to use email; we are doing the best we can.  Like I said at a seminar last week, we need to learn to manage email because right now its managing us.   Consider using email lingo like ‘No Reply Needed’ – added this to subject line – shorten to NRN
‘No Thanks Needed’ – same as above (NTN).   Using this lingo let’s people know you do not expect a response and will have less in your inbox. 

Email can be a great tool, but we have to learn to use it effectively and this is an opportunity for organizers – to teach our clients how to use email effectively.  Don’t be a sloppy emailer; use my suggestions and spend less time in front of that computer screen.

Email abuse has become a bit of a focus for me.  You may also consider reading One Step To Reducing Email Overload or consider attending our upcoming business business teleclass called Detox Your Inbox.