4. Everyone has email client and capabilities Everyone knows how to create messages Everyone can forward messages To anyone or everyone Email is easy to use!
5. It’s asynchronous It’s convenient It’s less formal It’s ubiquitous and platform-neutral There’s a written record of communication Email is easy to keep!
6. Email as filing cabinet Email as collaborative tool Email as distribution mechanism Is email the right place to work?
7. All email is important All email requires an immediate response All email should be kept indefinitely These assumptions are often untrue Common inbox assumptions
8. Email management is part of time mgmt Email should not be used for everything General principles
9. Email is not a records series Email should be kept as long as needed – and then gotten rid of General principles
11. Set up rules for “important” vs. routine messages Consider turning off alerts Make rules about which messages have alerts Define specific times to check email Inbox management model
12. Try to touch each message only once Respond to it immediately Respond to it later Declare it as a record Archive it for reference Delete it Inbox management cont’d
13. Lots of email traffic is stuff we ask for! “Bacn” Vendor announcements Chapter updates The Records Management listserv Image source: http://www.speakeasy.org/~sjmaks/bacon/ Reducing received emails
17. Can be useful, but often overused Perceived to provide accountability Better practice: use them only when really needed Especially BCC: as these are harder to track CC: and BCC:
18. Verify addressee(s) When replying, reply only to those who need a response Remove those who don’t Watch responses to groups, lists Reply-to vs. reply-all Effective email usage – addressees
19. Use a subject line Use correct subject line for topic being discussed Use subject lines that are informative Effective email usage – subject line
20. Identify whether response is required Consider using subject line as content Don’t declare privilege Effective email usage – subject line
21. Use professional tone in messages Don’t write essays where notes will do Determine what to do about the previous message Keep, discard, or excerpt Effective email usage - body
22. Consider the file size of the attachment to be sent Consider the file type to be sent Security filtering Multimedia formats Effective email usage - attachments
23. Can the recipient receive attachments? Send attachments only to users that truly need them Send links instead of attachments Effective email usage - attachments
Each part of each organization needs to know what it should save. This will be different for accounting vs. sales vs. engineering vs. management vs. etc. etc. etc.
Some is internal, but unnecessary “Colleague spam”Ask others not to send it if you don’t need it – that means training your subordinates, your peers, and maybe your boss. It also means delegating rather than being Cced on every little thing.
At this point I’d be pleased to entertain your questions.