Email can be a massive waste of time. If you help others cut their email time down, you’ll inevitably spend less time on it yourself. By following email etiquette, you can reduce the stress that it can cause. Perhaps if everyone followed these guidelines, the world really would be a happier place!
Use Descriptive Subject Lines
If you have to open each email just to figure out what it’s about, you can’t prioritize them as efficiently. Ask yourself if you’d understand the purpose of the email based on the subject heading alone.
Brevity is Your Friend
Have you ever received one of those emails that never seems to end? Have you ever sent one? In most of cases, email that is more than a page long is too long.
But Don’t Be Too Brief
Context is important. It’s easy to forget exactly what you sent out even a few days ago if you deal with a lot of e-mail. When replying to messages, clip off as much of the previous email as you can, but keep key sentences quoted in your reply. Make sure you provide contextual details.
Don’t CC if You Don’t Have a Reason
For the most part, you shouldn’t send someone an email unless you want them to take action on it
Reply-All Isn’t Always Necessary
Someone asks their whole mailing list for advice; the whole mailing list uses reply-all to give the advice. You get the pleasant surprise of tens, hundreds, or even thousands of totally unwanted emails. Reply-all can be useful, but it’s often used for no good reason at all.
Use BCC for Bulk Mail
If you absolutely must send a bulk mail to your address book, always use the BCC field. It’s a basic privacy measure.
Don’t Use The Forward Button
Even if it’s not chain mail, it usually boils down to another case of “just keeping you in the loop” that’s often unnecessary.