Typo cop: I meant Strunk & White, of course, not “Stunk” & White. Though it’s certainly a poetic slip if you’re not a fan. :)

Merlin,

Loved your talk at Google.

If I had to pick one, I would pick one you mentioned there: process to zero.

If I could pick two, I would say “write better email”. Included in that would be to draft emails that include a great subject line indicating what action needs to be taken. This idea comes from Sally McGhee (former partner of David Allen’s).

-Always only one person in TO field. -Use numbering if you list your points or questions. -No mail exceeding 10 sentences. -If you quote previous email, make sure your text stands out. -Always write when you want to get a reply if it’s urgent. -I don’t need “Thank you” response to every email I send. -Use god damn spellchecker before sending email, it’s already there and it’s free!

The Rand Corporation published “Toward an Ethics and Etiquette for Electronic Mail” in 1985, 10 years before RFC 1855. It’s online at www.rand.org/pubs/reports/R3283/index.html.

1. No goofy backgrounds or wacky fonts. Every time I open one of these emails, I want to kill bunny rabbits because I know that their deaths will surely hurt the sender of a cutesy email in some way.

2. Inform with the subject line. No “Hey…,” “Whats up?,” “Hi there” or any of that.

3. Don’t write a novel in your subject line.

I disagree.

I’m not sure about the no HTML email rule. I just recently began work in an office with a system that doesn’t support HTML email and it is a much less rich system than I’m used too. Picture attachments won’t show up in the body of an email so you can’t arrange your text about the picture around it. You can’t post things from the web in and expect them to look anything like they did online. In general it feels like going back in time.

Another rule at my office is “no managing by email.” In a lot of ways this is good because it reduces misunderstandings and you can be sure someone got your message because you looked them in the eye. What I have learned about myself is that I had become accustomed to organizing my tasks via an email system and now I’m constantly being given things to do in person. So I have to write them down or they slip through the cracks. For a while I used post-it notes but then after they overwhelmed my desk I switched to emailing myself and using MS outlooks task list feature. Every time I go into outlook to task myself, I wish the person who gave me this task would have sent it in email in the first place.

Relevant subject lines and the use of QQ—Quick Question more often.

The complete elimination of ccing everyone to say “Thanks!” “Congratulations! You did a great job!”. Please just send your thanks and kudos directly to the sender.

The one thing that is getting to me at the moment is the unnecessary follow up e-mails.

“Thanks.”

“No worries.”

“You’re welcome.”

It reminds me of teenagers trying to get off the phone.

“No, you hang up.”

Think memorandum - would you send a memo that says something like this?

No HTML Email (unless for marketing purposes)

If you use a Email address more than once in your To: field then for Pete’s sake, add it to your Contact list.

For the people out there who are clearly frustrated and annoyed by those one-word “thanks” or “you’re welcome” messages I would suggest a little deep breathing. Perhaps it’s time to stop letting e-mail interrupt your work. If you’re getting so worked up over what someone else clearly thinks of as a courtesy, something is clearly not working for you and you need to realize that, as Merlin says, everyone has their own set of rules and etiquette for e-mail.

I, for one, like such succinct messages best of all because (a) in many cases it is very nice to have confirmation that my kind and thoughtful message was received rather than trapped in a spam filter and (b) the only processing required of me is delete. Let’s not throw out all of our manners for the sake of saving a keystroke! Because people’s preferences differ, perhaps we need a convention similar to the widely recognized “EOM” subject line that says “No reply necessary” or “please confirm receipt”?

Personally, the messages that give me the biggest headaches are the long-winded and ambiguous ones. I completely agree with rediscovering the lost art of the Subject Line. The trend towards five.sentenc.es means well, and I think it’s a good guideline for people to keep in mind, but the primary goal should be clear communication.

Do whatever it takes for you to clearly articulate what’s on your mind. A writer doing this properly will think about what he or she is saying from my perspective long enough to understand whether or not I might require a long and detailed or short and succinct message. Let’s have fewer rules and more thoughtfulness.