Blog Journeys of a Lifelong Learner

1. Create meaningful subjects.

Your subject should not say that the message is from you. The sender should be obvious from the name and e-mail address associated with the message.

If you are sharing an e-mail address, you need a personal account. An e-mail address is a type of online identity; you do not share a name with anyone else, neither should you share an e-mail account.

Here are some poor subjects:

• Message from {name} about {topic}
• (no subject)
• some questions

These subjects would be better:

• {topic}: {x} questions
• What do you think about {issue}?

2. Restrict e-mails to a single topic.

A series of e-mails should be viewed as a conversation on a particular topic. While some topics require lengthy correspondence, length should come from complexity of a topic, not from a multiplicity of topics.

These are some problems of long, unfocused messages:

• They are difficult to process.
• They cannot be handled quickly.
• Responses are delayed (if they are delivered at all).

3. Use absolute dates.

If you reference a day in an e-mail, it should be with a date. Sometimes messages are delayed or readers do not check the date on which a message was sent if they only periodically check for new messages.

Instead of referencing "tomorrow," reference "tomorrow, 11/2" (for example).

This will improve clarity of communication.

4. Do not bombard others with forwarded messages.

Almost no messages should be forwarded. The ones most frequently forwarded seem to be virus hoaxes. If an e-mail declares itself to be important enough to warrant mass forwarding, realize that you have cognitive abilities and your e-mails do not.

If you must forward something, be tactful in doing so, realizing that everyone else is also battling digital information overload and may not appreciate needless inbox loading.

5. Never use attachments unless absolutely necessary.

If you are sending textual information and that textual information does not have formatting that necessitates the use of an attachment, send the text directly on the e-mail.

Every additional click eliminates more potential viewers. The use of a particular file format also assumes that the recipient will be able to open the file. If the file contents can be sent as a plain text message, you will do your recipient a great service by doing so.