The art of emailing

Good emails

• Eliminate some meetings
• Create confidence
• Put everyone on the same page

Bad emails

• Cause more meetings
• Erode trust
• Advance competing agendas

Email is how I earn a living whether it be as Administrative Pastor of Oasis Church or as a DBA/Consultant with Think Ministry Inc. 

I simply could not do what I do apart from email.  I have to remind myself regularly about some principles I use when writing emails.  Here they are:

1. Have I created a subject that captures the essence of this email?
2. Is email the most appropriate way to get this information across?
3. Is there information appended to my message from a prior message that may need to be erased or edited?
4. Do I have all the right recipients?
5. Do I have any of the wrong recipients?
6. Are my thoughts in the most helpful order for the reader?
7. Am I obscuring the main point by being too long-winded?
8. Have I formatted the email to draw the reader in?
9. Am I attaching documents and referring to those documents in the body?
10. Am I using this email to preach or vent or otherwise transfer my frustation?

It would be silly to think  I go through every principle when I write an email, but I have a natural sense of concern that takes hold for certain emails.  I wish I had as much opportunity to sensor my verbal communication.

If you aren't familiar with your drafts folder you should be.  If an email is questionable, leave it your drafts folder for a while and decide later whether you still feel like sending it.  Just because we can instantly communicate with everyone doesn't mean we should.

Comments

[KevinD]

These are good tips - if everybody was this thoughtful about email, the world would be a lot more efficient...