Majicman Notes

Email is a tool for getting things done, and so the essential questions are not about salutations but about productivity. Emails are problematic not when they use the wrong sign-off but when they waste time and attention.

First: use the tools that many email programs offer. 

If you want to send an email to a large group while ensuring that only you receive the replies, don’t type “PLEASE DO NOT REPLY ALL”. Make it impossible to do so by putting the group in BCC. If someone else fails to follow this rule and your inbox fills up with witty but irrelevant banter, try “mute”

Use “schedule send” to ensure your email arrives during office hours, no matter when you send it. This is a kindness, but also trains your colleagues not to expect instant responses.

Second: be the change you want to see in the world. Try announcing that you are “moving Julia to BCC” as a way of politely excusing her from further duties in a group email. Dabble with changing the subject line: “Plans for AGM July 8 ” ceases to be a good subject if the AGM has been moved to July 7. If your entire email is that the 4pm meeting has been postponed by 15 minutes, then I recommend a subject line “The 4pm meeting has been postponed by 15 minutes //” rather than “URGENT PLEASE READ”.

My third piece of advice is the most fundamental: clarify and decide. A hundred emails a day is a lot if you leave half of them sitting in your inbox. Keep that up and in a month you’ll have 1,500.

The solution is to be sharper about your decisions. If no action is needed then delete or archive. Most archived email is easy to find again. If action is needed, and it is brief and obvious, do it immediately. Otherwise, archive the email and note the project in a task manager.

The solution to email overload is to make clear decisions, quickly. That does not mean instant replies, but it should mean that the email no longer festers in the inbox. A sharp organisation will find better ways to handle its core activities than reverting to email. But so too will a sharp individual.

Tim Harford

https://timharford.com/2021/05/an-economists-tips-on-making-email-work-for-you/