To ensure our email communication is as effective and efficient as possible, we'd like to share some guidelines to help streamline our exchanges and reduce the clutter in our inboxes.
These "rules of thumb" are designed to improve clarity, reduce email overload, and enhance our overall productivity.
Let’s work together to make our inboxes a better-managed space with communication that is clear, concise, and actionable.
Start with a clear subject line, summarizing the email's intent to facilitate quick understanding and future searches. Change / update email subjects if you switch to another topic.
Address emails only to individuals directly involved in the action or decision-making process. Think carefully as the originator of the email to only add the necessary people.
Use 'CC' thoughtfully. Include only those who need awareness of the information without the need for direct action.
Keep the content concise. Lengthy discussions should be taken offline into meetings.
Clearly state required actions, use bullet points for visibility, and include deadlines where applicable.
When an action is assigned to you, confirm receipt with an estimated time for the addressed action or a detailed response.
Provide context when adding new recipients to a thread, with a brief summary of the discussion so far.
Consider whether all recipients need to see your response to avoid cluttering inboxes. Don’t reply with “thanks”, “I agree” and other noise that doesn’t add anything. When replying think about options, is reply all really appropriate, could the bulk of people be moved to bcc.
Handle sensitive content with care.
Let's keep each other accountable and share feedback with each other to continuously improve our e-mail communication practices.