Each day, about 250 million email messages zoom around the Internet. Some of them, no doubt, head to your inbox. Do you look forward to seeing messages there? Is it work for you, even if the messages are personal? If so, you’re not the only one overwhelmed. Email has taken over just about every occupation, home and cell phone. As a result, you have to deal with it or drown in an increasing swell of messages—risking missed information from both the personal and professional sides of life.

I have a few simple steps (among many possibilities) that can ease email anxiety:

Terri's Inbox

• Use software (or webmail) that works for you. If you don’t like Outlook Express or Windows Mail (the defaults on most Windows PCs), find something that you do like. Here is a list of other applications.
• If changing software, etc. is not possible, customize it so it is something you like to see. Let’s face it, you’ll have to spend a bunch of time staring at it anyway—why not make it pleasant to look at? Most business mail applications have different themes or color schemes. For example, I need to change Outlook 2007 to use the black theme because the default blue theme is just too bright for me. I’ve included instructions to do this here.
• Use rules or filters to sort incoming mail into folders or labels (if you use Gmail) to allow at-a-glance assessment of your newest mail and thus priorities. My inbox is pictured here as an example. Note that the folders or labels only have to make sense to you, no one else. Use shorthand, but don’t be too clever and outwit yourself. I once confused myself after a long vacation—it can happen to anyone! Here are directions to use Outlook rules.
• Use rules or filters to push ads to a junk or ads folder. This is not pure spam I’m talking about; this is the stuff that comes from legitimate sites that you have ordered from or read regularly. And maybe you are interested in their special deals. However, automatically put these messages in a separate place to look at when you are ready to shop or read about it. They can be very distracting and overwhelming when you are in the middle of something else. A good hint: create a rule that dumps everything not sent to you specifically in the To: or cc: lines into this ads folder.
• Create an archive folder. Save important personal or professional information here instead of letting it fill up your main inbox. A good rule of thumb: clean out your inbox of these things every month. Software like Outlook allows you to automate archiving. Gmail encourages you to archive. Do it and save yourself the stress of looking at the same list of messages over and over again. Of course, if you have acted on or responded to an email and have no use for it afterwards, delete it! Click here to learn about archiving in Outlook.

Stay slim when the glut of email heads toward your inbox. Get rid of the huge list of unread emails and have your mail software break it down into digestible, prioritized parts. Let the technology make it easier on you–that’s its job.

Terri Croop

The self proclaimed “holy grail” of this book? Email that’s so effective it cuts down on email. To accomplish this simply S-E-N-D:

“S” Simple: Pare down your message to be as tight and concise as possible.
“E” Effective: Be sure your message is effective and ask others for feedback.
“N” Necessary: If it’s not necessary it should be deleted.
“D” Done: Ask yourself, am I moving things forward or just off my desktop?

Some of my favorite points:

Common Email Foibles: Being too quick on the draw and forgetting who we are in relation to the person to whom we’re writing. Emotional and/or inappropriate transmittals can be catalysts to untold horrors that can damage careers and customer relationships. The authors of SEND recant many an anecdote outlining how heads of government agencies and C level execs are taken down for bad judgment and off-color humor and rude, targeted remarks emailed indiscriminately. Always, always, always ask yourself, “What is my relationship to the person I’m writing?”

Use of the CC Field: This field should be used when you want to say something to one person (listed in the TO field) but you want others on the team to be aware of the acknowledgment. It can also be used to keep people in the loop who may not be directly involved in the actionables being discussed. Dropping or adding someone from CC should not be an arbitrary decision. The group dynamics could change dramatically. This seemingly inconsequential act can enlarge a compliment or signal that someone’s days are numbered and should be done with caution to avoid starting a war. “NEVER forget that a CC has the power to publicly shame someone, whether that’s your intention or not.”

Greetings and Salutations: The best one word salutation that is cordial, inoffensive, and not too casual when addressing a group is “Greetings.” I used to labor over how to open just such an email conversation and now I use this all the time. Salutations are not always necessary especially within your own organization. When responding to a salutation-free email from outside your organization it is acceptable to reply without including a salutation. In fact the addition of a greeting could be read as reprimanding the sender for not including one in the original correspondence.

Emoticons: Apparently I was living under a rock because I was completely unfamiliar with the official term for the . Incidentally, they should never be used in a professional setting. When writing any kind of formal email an emoticon is always inappropriate. The authors implore us to resist the urge to try and compensate for a risky joke or sarcastic comment with an emoticon. I would suggest that if you think you need to soften the blow, it’s probably best not to send it at all.

Exclamation Points: Exclamation points are helpful when composing an email, assisting to infuse human warmth in an otherwise flat correspondance.  However, the authors issue a word of caution– don’t use exclamation points to convey a negative emotion. It will look like you’re throwing a temper tantrum! And always be mindful that the use of exclamation points should be limited in formal writing.

Responding vs. Silence: It’s always better to send a late response than none at all. In cases where you’re less than prompt it would be appropriate to include an apology. If you need time to gather info before responding, stave off mounting frustration on the part of your requester, send a quick note intimating that you’re on the case and will get the info they need by “x.”

Subject Lines and Legal Issues: Did you know that if you don’t change the subject line when the topic changes all emails containing and linking other emails to that original subject can be subpoenaed whether relevant or not? I didn’t, and neither did my management team. Interesting tidbit that could save big in the long term.

Notably this book has seemingly been replaced by the email etiquette crusading duo with their latest guide, Send: Why People Email So Badly and How to Do It Better, Revised Edition.

Overall I enjoyed the tone and pace of the material and although it’s not exactly measurable, I would say that the awareness the exercise created was well worth the effort. Not a day goes by when I don’t mutter under my breath, while reading an email, how desperately the sender needs to be schooled in email etiquette. (Notably, it’s usually an email from outside our domain.) The bottom line according to co-authors David Shipley and Will Shwalbe, “Think before you send. Send email you would like to receive.” Sounds like something a mom would say. Happy sending:)

Gillian Kenny