Merlin’s weekly podcast with Dan Benjamin. We talk about creativity, independence, and making things you love.
Stever Robbins on email overload
Merlin Mann | Mar 10 2005
HBS Working Knowledge: The Leadership Workshop: Tips for Mastering E-mail Overload Great article on dealing with a high volume of email that focuses on what you can do to craft email messages that are easy to process, read, and answer. So full of goodness, I’m not sure what to highlight, so I’ll just quote a tip for beating back one of my pet peeves, the wishy washy project update:
When I manage a project and send this sort of email, I frequently start with a set of open and recently closed items as well as when they’re due (if we know) and by whom: [ ] Ralph - 2005-04-01 - Build ramp near chicken stand (more on my little codes here) Anyhow, Stever’s article has super advice throughout, and, if I may say, it’s a nice companion to the recent email articles posted here: (via injoke.org, BoingBoing, and many others) 5 Comments
POSTED IN:
 Summarize action items at the...Submitted by dan hartung (not verified) on March 13, 2005 - 12:06pm.
Summarize action items at the end of a message so everyone can read them at one glance. Oh. Oh dear, no. Unfortunately, as much as I still lo these years on feel a twinge of wrongness on top-posting, this is one thing we can't change. E-mail doesn't get read until the end. People skim, look for keywords and their name, and bang on. Well, not all people, but we're talking about people with e-mail overload here. Here's something where AP style comes into play. From top to bottom, the most important things start at the top and the more detail goes at the bottom. If it's unimportant put it at the very end so people can ignore it or cut it off. If you need to summarize or expect something, PUT IT AT THE TOP. If there's any polite social niceties to observe, use them to leaven your bluntness, but don't try to disguise it. Dan, I need you to take the lead on this problem. I know you're busy with the Whickerman project, but you're the in-house expert on Arbus, so could you make sure that Jonesy is up to speed and pointed in the right direction? » POSTED IN:
|
|
| EXPLORE 43Folders | THE GOOD STUFF |
