When to not email
By now we’ve probably all suffered the ill effects of poor email habits. Whether that’s the premature punch of the send button, or the too-quickly written screed drafted in anger, or the mistaken “To:” recipients, we’ve all been there and felt the sting.
Adding some strategy to these hard lessons is a new ChangeThis manifesto by David Shipley and Will Schwalbe called “When You Absolutely, Positively Should NOT Use Email: A Civilized List.” This is excellent reading and you should go download the pdf right now. One gem in particular that struck home with me: don’t email at 3am. Especially if you’re the boss since other people might actually be up and reading email and then you’ll be contributing to their sleepless night. Draft it and send it at a reasonable hour. Or read a book. :-)
Anyway, the manifesto is a great reminder of the power of email (good and bad).
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POSTED IN: career, coaching, communication, management, productivity, tips and tricks, work life
4 opinions for When to not email
Will Schwalbe
Jul 11, 2007 at 6:45 pm
So glad you liked the manifesto. I have to say that only recently have I realized how noxious it is to send emails in the middle of the night. I’m an insomniac and I usually wake up at about 4am and read emails (I know I shouldn’t) and if there is something new and annoying there — well, that’s it for my sleep for the rest of the night. But rather than realize the damage 24/7 emailing causes, I would compound the problem by answering or sending out new emails. Now I either resist the urge — or save my late night emails as draft and send them the next morning.
Oh, and cool blog!
gordon
Jul 13, 2007 at 5:40 am
Very nice… seems like common sense until you catch yourself doing it. Thanks for the article.
Mark Hurst
Jul 15, 2007 at 5:36 am
Will did a nice job on the “sending-email” book… I’d also point you to my book, “Bit Literacy: Productivity in the Age of Information and E-mail Overload,” which covers not only email but todos (at least as big a source of stress as email), photos, media diet, file naming, and other essentials.
Hope you’ll take a look… it’s at bitliteracy.com.
Jennifer
Jul 18, 2007 at 10:44 pm
Thanks for the link — I loved the not when you’re drunk, too funny. And especially the don’t when the Re’s are piling up; I hate when people do that. Good stuff.