Top 10 Reasons You Are Probably Using Email Incorrectly
Email is a technological tool that everyone relies on and perhaps also hates (it’s an internet cockroach !). Like it or not, we can probably all improve our email skills, from managing inboxes to sending more elegant emails. Here are ten of the most common mistakes we make with email.
10. Email to the wrong people or too many people
It’s shockingly easy to send an email to the wrong person, which everyone who has received an email addressed to someone else, or who has made this mistake, should know. Always double-check the auto-complete recipient address in your email program and, perhaps most importantly, try not to send emails that could embarrass you if they fall into the wrong hands. (See this PC Magazine email bounce overview for further support.) Likewise, make sure that each person in the To: or Cc fields actually needs this message (To: For the person to reply, Cc: for people who just need a copy of the message). Emailing people who don’t need the message is like forcing someone to come to a meeting they shouldn’t be at. Also, be careful when replying rather than replying to everything – one of the main causes of email failures.
9. Checking your mailbox too often
Everyone is trying to fix email because it kills productivity . We all check it too often – in the evenings, on weekends and holidays, and throughout the day. The key to a better job is checking your email less , so here’s how to stop checking your email in your spare time , why you shouldn’t check your email first thing in the morning, and how to free up more space for more important work by customizing your email address. program to check every hour, not continuously .
8. Insufficient mailbox cleaning
The irony is that we constantly check our email, but our inboxes keep filling up anyway because we don’t take any action when we check our email. (It’s like taking regular mail from your mailbox, opening all the letters, and then dumping them in a pile at the front door. If you’ve been to my house, you know what I mean). in pursuit of zero mailbox and the stress of our mailboxes going to hell, there is a solution: check your inbox regularly (but not all the time), and when you do, actually process those messages. Here’s how to work with the seven basic types of email , three folders or shortcuts that can help you clean up your inbox , and how to organize Gmail with a basic limited set of shortcuts . We also submitted such applications as Mailstrom and native application Google Inbox, which make your mailbox more manageable and help filter e-mails from your mailbox on the labels to which they belong.
7. Using the Inbox as a Task Manager and Notes application.
The emails that tend to stay in our inbox are either reference materials (like a newsletter with information you really want to read ) or actions (like a targeted coupon you think to use or questions about a project from your boss. need to answer … eventually). This makes Gmail or your other email app seem like the perfect to-do list manager or a place to send yourself notes and email reminders, but email is not a task manager . New emails will keep coming in, burying important things and notes in this mass of messages. In addition, dedicated task managers and note-taking apps have a lot more useful features for these purposes, such as drag and drop to prioritize tasks like Wunderlist does, and everything you can do with Evernote , like adding handwritten notes and grouping multiple notes. into one. There are exceptions to every rule, of course a good system or workflow can apply the principles of Getting Things Done to Gmail, and Google’s Inbox does a pretty good job of enabling task-related functionality . Generally, you’re better off using one to-do list, perhaps not your email.
6. Hiding new emails in old threads
Aka, don’t intercept a closed topic to start a new conversation because you are damn lazy to create a new message and add the contacts you want . Email loops have a way of spiraling out of control on their own, even when everyone sticks to the subject line. (You know those subject lines that start with “Re: Re: Re: Re:” Uh.) It’s even worse when the thread just doesn’t die because we keep it alive, using the old thread to send the message to a completely different theme . I have to admit that this is my pet peeve, and I’ve seen the smartest tech people do it. Using an old thread on a different topic makes it much more difficult for recipients to organize and make sense of their emails (for example, the topic is about dinner plans four months ago, but now everyone is following the same thread for next month’s surprise party). Please don’t do this. Start a new email for each individual subject.
5. Writing terrible subject lines
The reason reusing old email threads is awful is because the subject lines of the email are an important piece of information. They help us understand if we should read the email right away or they can wait. I get too many emails with completely blank subject lines, the same subject line for all emails from the same sender (eg, “Hello”), and subject lines that are sometimes crude enough I never open them (eg. “THIRD ATTEMPT: The news that I constantly tell you, readers want to read”). I know I could be better off writing more actionable and informative topics and only writing topic-specific emails with acronyms like EOM . The subject line is very important, so it’s helpful if you know how to create a killer subject .
4. Refusal to save and backup important emails.
We tend to think of our inboxes as some kind of unlimited storage space for all our emails sent and received. But just like you shouldn’t trust a cloud storage provider like Dropbox to store your only copy of an important file, your important emails (and other files) shouldn’t be in the same place . What if Exchange Server mysteriously deletes your emails? Or does Gmail turn off when you need to access certain email? (I’ve seen both.) Email backups are your friend. Here’s how you can back up your emails to your hard drive or a third-party backup service (like Gmail) and how to automatically back up and empty Gmail every month . Outlook and other desktop email clients make it easy to archive or save messages to your hard drive, but you can also use IFTTT to send messages and attachments to cloud services so that important emails are stored in more than one place.
3. Ignoring the basic rules of email etiquette
As with other means of communication, there are smarter and less considerate email methods. If there is only one email etiquette guide you want to read today, read the Email Charter . It includes a lot of tips, such as limiting your email messages to just a few sentences ( be short , organized, and up-to-date ). Some tips to keep emails short and sweet: Preview your emails on your phone before sending , limit yourself to 300 words, and try not to annoy the world with your email signature . Finally, don’t drink or write.
2. Sending confidential information by email
Email may seem private, but it really isn’t . Encrypt your documents (such as sensitive tax-related files) if you need to digitally transfer them or find other ways to transfer sensitive information such as passwords . Remember that anything that can be seen can be copied, so when in doubt, store these things in the meat world, not digital (like incoming or outgoing emails).
1. Lack of timely response to emails
Have you ever read an email and then tagged it, or just thought you would reply later (and never get to it)? I admit it too. However, responsiveness to email may be the most important email habit you can develop, at least according to Google CEO Eric Schmidt . Use the 2-2-2 rule to force yourself to respond to all types of messages in a timely manner (respond to emails within 2 hours). Well, it would be good for many of us to respond within half an hour ! If you fell in response to an email, don’t worry, you can get better . But going forward, consider installing better email filters so that only the most important emails grab your attention – and keep your email in check rather than letting it control you .
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