Recently I wrote a book called recently I wrote a book called “The E-mail Manual”. It is the book you should have received when you first started using e-mail. I think if everybody had a copy of this book on their desks and read it before they started using e-mail, there would be a fewer problems and issues with using and managing e-mail.
I intend to put together a number of articles where I extract these tips, ideas and strategies from the book for you to read. Each article will have five different tips and insights. You will notice that these tips and insights are simple, straightforward and useful in helping you manage an ever increasing inbox.
Look out for the remaining articles which cover many of the strategies you’ll find in the book. If you do have other strategies that you think would be useful to me to add in my next edition, why not send me an e-mail.
1. Double check who the email is going to
One of the easiest mistakes to make is to send an email to the wrong person. It is easy to scroll down through the address book and click on a name and hit send only to find out that you ‘shot and missed’ when you selected the email addresses.
This can be embarrassing at best and disastrous if you send confidential information to the wrong person.
2. If you have one or many email addresses, check them often
The whole idea of email is to stay in touch faster than ‘snail mail’ , so check your business
and personal email addresses regularly.
3. Set up an ’Auto Reply’ service when you are away
Have you ever sent an email to someone and received an automated response back? It will be something like ‘I will be out of the office until next Tuesday. If you need urgent assistance please call Sally Smith on (03) 9533-9533’.
Auto responses are a nice feature because at least you are kept informed as to why you are not hearing from someone you have sent an email to.
Creating an auto responding message before going on annual leave is positive and proactive.
You might also want to consider creating a message if you are going to be unavailable for a couple of hours. This is especially useful if you receive a lot of
Emails. Most people who will send you an email and get back your reply stating that you are out of the office and will be back in the afternoon will at least be clued up to when they might receive a response back from you.
4. Follow the correct usage of grammar and punctuation
Just because you are writing an email and not a formal letter doesn’t mean you can drop the need for writing properly. Whether you are writing an email or a formal report, good grammar and spelling are essential.
Glaring mistakes in your style or ability to use the English language throws a dim light on your competency as a professional person. So if you are writing to a customer with a major proposal and fail to use proper grammar, your proposal not only looks sloppy but also appears not very well thought through.
If you feel that you do not have good writing skills, or you have poor English skills, for goodness sake take a writing course. If you don’t know when to use a semi-colon compared to using a colon, then it’s time for some revision.
One final Thought
While it might be alright to abbreviate your SMS messages, it’s not when you are using Email.
5. Be Careful sending emails in HTML
Most email software gives you the option to send email in plain text or HTML. HTML email allows you to add graphics such as graphic headers and footer. The problem is that HTML Emails and can often get caught by email filters.
Consider using plain text. It means that your Emails have a greater chance of getting through to the people you are sending your messages to.
If you would like to learn how to better manage your e-mail or inbox, why not consider my Zero Inbox training program? This e-mail management course is available in Australia and will soon be available online. You can visit, http://www.success.net.au/seminars/zero-inbox.html to learn more about how to better manage your e-mail and reduce your inbox. Alternatively, you can visit: http://www.zero-inbox.com/
