The Hired Guns Blog

Email is probably responsible for saving more time in the office than any other recent technology. Tasks that used to require letters and phone calls–which often went unanswered, and had to be followed by a series of messages left and ignored–can now be handled with a few taps on a keyboard.

But email can also waste hours and hours. Think about how many times you’ve been inundated with a dozen messages in a row from people hitting the Reply All to weigh in on some point of trivia that could have been solved with one conversation. What used to be a dialogue between two people becomes a conversation among four, five, or fifteen. It’s like part of our brain is always in a meeting.

I once worked in an office where Reply All was responsible for so much lost efficiency that managers actually announced a plan to disable the Reply All button on all our computers. The plan was abandoned when they discovered this was impossible—but you could understand where they were coming from. Email also strips vocal tone and body language away from our words. Without that nonverbal information, criticisms sting harder, requests seem abrupt, and genuine praise can fall flat.

After all this time, why are we still struggling with email? I think it’s because different jobs carry different expectations, and norms vary drastically from office to office. And the plain truth is, email is writing, and some people are better writers than others.

Even if you aren’t a champion writer, you can still keep from flailing when you use email. Here are ten guidelines that can help your emails turn out better—or help you know when not to send an email at all. Your approach may vary, but I’ve found that these work for me.

1. Only send an email if it’s faster than a phone call or a person-to-person conversation.

2. Emails are easy to forward. Never put anything in an email you wouldn’t want everyone else at the company to read.

3. When you must send an email to a large group, designate one person the key recipient. At the beginning of the message, address it to that person, and mention that you’re copying everyone else to keep them informed. That’s a subtle way of saying that you only expect a reply from people seriously invested in the subject.

4. Use Reply All infrequently. Think of it as a button you have to pay to click (which of course you do, in time lost).

5. Don’t use Blind Carbon Copy (BCC) as a way to let a third person spy on a conversation. See rule number 2.

6. Avoid sarcasm.

7. Respect the fact that people are impatient. Show a little goodwill even if you’re too swamped to respond to every urgent concern. Here’s one of the most powerful sentences you can send in an email: “I will have an answer for you soon.”

8. Don’t overdo it. Some people designate an email-free hour at the beginning of every workday to get work done. I’ve never had the discipline to do this, but it’s a great idea in principle. When you need uninterrupted time to focus on a hard problem, stay away from email for an hour.

9. Don’t send angry emails. If you’re truly livid, call the person on the phone or walk over to their desk. That’s the best gut-check on whether your anger is well-placed or petty.

10. Similarly, when you want to thank someone for good work, do that in person too. Never underestimate the power of two people exchanging a smile. It’s a lot better than just a .

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