Send Emails Better

By FPL_Adam

It is easy to let your email inbox eat up large parts of your precious day both at home and at work. Getting smarter about how you email will win back some precious time. Below are some email basics and some links to in-depth and on-demand time management courses available from the library!

1. Reply vs Reply All

Try to eliminate interruptions of others by either just replying to the sender or eliminating some names out of the To: field. This will also eliminate any interruptions for you by bypassing receiving all those additional replies too.

2. Subject Fields

Keep your subjects focused on your topic and avoid those undescriptive Hi and You Have a Sec? subject lines. This will let others decide if they should open the email right away and find it again when quickly scrolling through their inbox. Thus, eliminating email request to resend the information in another email.

3. Bullet Points

If you email truly needs to be long, put the essential details or action items into short bullet points. Today, scanning emails is common practice and this will help those most important points stand out and get noticed. It is common practice for people to read in-depth once, mark it to be revisited and then scan it to remind themselves of what needs to be done (or alternatively scan first and read in-depth later).

4. The Send Button

Take a moment to pause, spell check, and make sure you are clear and haven’t missed anything. This will save both you and the recipients time in the long run. If you can eliminate having to follow up with additional items and having to answer questions with clarifications, this will save everyone time.

5. Get a 4D Inbox

If the fourth dimension is time, here is a time saving way to manage your inbox:

• • Delete the message if it is not needed.
  • Do If it only takes a minute or two, act now.
  • Defer action if it will take longer than a couple of minutes. Add a reminder/notification, move it to a task list, or mark it as unread. Whatever works best for you.
  • Delegate the responding action whenever appropriate.

Love saving time and working smarter? Use your Frisco Library Card to access more tips and entire on-demand video course on time management from experts on LinkedIn Learning (formerly Lynda.com)! Here are just a couple of courses that are popular:

Time Management Tips (on-demand video)

Time Management Fundamentals Course  (on-demand video course)

Time Management for Managers (on-demand video course)

The Six Morning Habits of High Performers (on-demand video course)