10 Rules to Reverse the Email Spiral

TED curator Chris Anderson recently launched the “Email Charter,” a list of ten rules to make email more efficient, less time-consuming, and more pleasant. Sample rules include:

1. Respect Recipients’ Time
This is the fundamental rule. As the message sender, the onus is on YOU to minimize the time your email will take to process. Even if it means taking more time at your end before sending.

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3. Celebrate Clarity
Start with a subject line that clearly labels the topic, and maybe includes a status category [Info], [Action], [Time Sens] [Low Priority]. Use crisp, muddle-free sentences. If the email has to be longer than five sentences, make sure the first provides the basic reason for writing. Avoid strange fonts and colors.

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7. Attack Attachments
Don’t use graphics files as logos or signatures that appear as attachments. Time is wasted trying to see if there’s something to open. Even worse is sending text as an attachment when it could have been included in the body of the email.

If I were making a list like this, I’d also include something about those annoying, and useless, legal disclaimers. Via Alltop