Is email some random tool that your team uses to communicate by? Does it feel like it’s a little out of control? Do you even have guidelines in place to us email effectively with your team?

If you answered yes then read on.

Email at all? — Sometimes email is not the best method to communicate by. Email doesn’t’ have nuance and can’t express tonal inflections in your voice. Sometime you need to pick up a phone and call the person. Remember he David Allen 2 minute rule. He says if you can get it done in 2 minutes than do it now. You can save yourself a lot of time by making a 2 minute phone call. Also feel free to pick up a phone and call someone back even if the emailed you.

TO / CC / BCC – Always address an email TO one person. This makes it clear that they need to act on it. And this makes it clear to you who you need to follow up with. Use CC sparingly. You only want to kep people in the communication loop but not burden them if they don’t need to have direct knowledge ogf what is being discussed. I make it a practice to never use BCC. If you want o include the person just add them to the CC list. I don’t think you need to hide who you are emailing.

Subject— Use a subject line that clearly states the project name and a brief description of the topic. This is very important in staying organized especially if you are managing many different projects.

Example:

Project Name – Brief description of topic

 Reply/Reply to All — Most of the time you should reply all, but there may be cases when someone does not need to receive your reply. Feel free to remove a person from the CC list. I always note that I removed them and may also follow up with that person to tell them I removed them and why. Once a clear conclusion has been made, send a new email to them with the conclusion.

Responses & Response Times — All emails should be responded to!Tell the person thanks “I got it” and will work on it. I make it a rule that I respond no later than 1 day from when the email was received. I process all you email once a day. This means replying and adding actions to my task manager. I also do what I call an emergency scan a few times throughout the day. I look for emails directed to me specifically. If you use Outlook you can highlight emails with specific colors so they pop out in your inbox.

How do you keep email under control within your team?