The Seven Rules of Effective Email

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1) Email will consume all your time and life if you let it -- so don't let it.

Always place time limits on email. For example, you may choose to read email from ten to ten thirty, four to four thirty, and then a quick check after dinner. If you read email constantly, you'll get very little done except for reading email!

You don't have to answer all your email; no such law nor moral obligation exists. I ignore all spam and semi-spam. Even somewhat legit email will usually get ignored by me if I don't know the sender and they couldn't be bothered with visiting my site to figure out my name.

Then again, I get several emails from people I've never met who have read my books or read my blogs. I do respond, although sometimes briefly.

I answer a lot of email by telephone. Yes, the telephone still works. Sometimes I'll reply to emails via my cell phone while driving home. Sometimes I'll answer email in person, such as when my wife emails me and I can walk to the next room to see her. I'll also deal with some email with responses like "Ask me when me meet Fri."

Never respond to short emails with long answers. For example a one line question should not elicit a five page answer; the medium is not designed for exchanges of that sort. I often send one and two word responses, such as "excellent" and "yes" as appropriate.

(now if you're procrastinating anyways, it's OK to read email as it comes in, as well as to respond with long soliloquies if you'd like)

2) Your Inbox is not a storage area. Move email out quickly.

Yes, a few things may live very temporarily in your inbox, but mail shouldn't linger there. It's called an "Inbox", not a "Holding Pen".

Emails that can be dealt with in a minute or less should be dealt with immediately upon reading. Other email may be allowed to linger for a few days at most.

3) Don't send email when angry!

If you're upset, you may draft an email, but apply the "sleep on it" rule and send it after a re-read and perhaps re-write in the morning.

Apply the same rule if you have angry violent thoughts. Some guy just took hostages yesterday at the Clinton campaign office in Rochester, New Hampshire and threatened to blow the place up. Instead, he should have gone to bed, and then re-analyzed his intended course of action in the morning. If he had, he'd probably just be a poor crazy dude instead of a poor crazy dude doing serious time in jail.

People have lost their jobs over angry emails -- and worse. Calm down first!

4) Each email you send needs to have one, and exactly one, purpose, and you must get to the point immediately.

Do you have a question about the budget AND want to get together for lunch next week?

That's two different emails, or perhaps an email and a phone call or maybe just a phone call. People scan emails and will miss things if illogically grouped together.

You also must get right to the point. In the (condensed) email below, the actual question, the point of the email, is buried and there is an excellent chance it will be missed. It might be OK for my mother who gets 3 emails a week, but most people get far more email and need email that can be processed quickly, i.e. that is short and to the point!

Dear Kate,

Hope all is well. The kids are back in school after  . . .
...
...
When are you arriving for Christmas?

This email needs to start with the question, the point of the email. Pleasantries, if any, can come later.

5) It's the Subject, Stupid.

The most important part of an email is the subject. Make sure it is accurate and enticing. If not, your email may be misconstrued or ignored.

If your email is asking for input on the FY09 Budget, a subject of "Hey" or "Question" is inane. A better subject would be "Your input on Budget please" or similar.

6) If you're busy, don't read email first thing in the morning.

Instead, dive right into your real work. Email is usually not real work.

Some people would go further with "Never read your email first thing in the morning. " Sorry, I don't have that much self-control. Besides, someone may be emailing me an offer I can't refuse. After all, as a speaker and consultant, most prospective jobs come in over email, and have since 1990.

7) Expect to occasionally be misunderstood -- email is impersonal and humans are not.

Smiley faces aside, as they are often ambiguous as well, email is impersonal and if you don't know the other person emailing, misunderstandings are to be expected. Hey, humans don't communicate that well anyway! Email can compound the problem.

I have a good friend that I once shared mutual hate with. We hated each other over email. The medium was the problem. We finally met, in a foreign land under less than ideal circumstances, and yet immediately become fast friends. I shouldn't have been so surprised, but I was.

I also just spoke to an extremely charming woman on the phone. The only surprise was that I thought she was cold and indifferent, although very efficient and business like, based on our previous emails.

Summary:
Violate these rules at your own risk! Yes, I do sometimes, but not when it really matters.

My business lives and dies by email. Even my personal life is increasingly driven by email. Your business, career, or even love life may be too. Love it or hate it, email matters.