ashe dryden

I'm anti-email.

I don't make a secret of this fact. I don't include my email address on my personal (non-business) cards and ask people to send me a message on twitter before emailing me. It feels like I always have too much email. I have more unanswered emails in my inbox than I'd like to admit. The more involved in projects and community initiatives I get, the less time I have for email, but the more email the new responsibilities create. 

Email has become a part-time job for most people - many employ part-time help to triage their email.

While you can do quite a lot to correct some of the organization issues and stop the automated emails that make their way to you,  there's a great deal more you can do to prevent the problems for you and the people you email.

Ask Permission

I really like the irc etiquette of asking someone before sending them a PM. It shows you respect their space and time (shout out to the physicists). Obviously this works best when you are moving from one medium - such as an in-person discussion or twitter conversation - to longer-format email.

@ashedryden Permission to e-mail you with regards to your diversity post? (I'm with O'Reilly & friendly ;-))

— Peter Cooper (@peterc) November 20, 2012

Plus I'm more likely to keep an eye out for the email and reply sooner to return the respect you showed me.

Email Out of Necessity and Lay off cc/bcc

I often receive emails I don't need to be included on. A recent notable case was an email thread that was 39 emails long wherein my input was only required once. 

As many people write email free-form without a whole lot of pre-thought involved, I suggest waiting to fill in the to/cc/bcc fields until after writing the email. It really isn't until after you've written the email that you fully understand the scope so you can send the email to the people who actually need to receive the information.

Why Are You Emailing Me?

Pretend the email subject is a halved tweet. Tell me in 70chars or less what the email is about. This is great when I am triaging my emails (I like to group like-emails together so there is less context-switching) as well as when I am searching for the email later.

@ashedryden ...I want work emails to not just be "Update needed", but "[Client name]: Update needed". Identify between clients we have.

— Ai (@Siniful) November 25, 2012

@ashedryden [my pet peeve is] Responding to an old, non-pertinent email instead of starting a new email thread - including _not_ changing the subject line.

— Joe Regan (@jregan) November 25, 2012

Use the first few lines inside the email to expand upon that. Since I often email people based on a twitter conversation, I like to include a link to the tweet or the tweet itself to add context. Tweetbot gives me the option to email a tweet and I've been using that quite often.

Similarly, if you are following up on a conversation, summarize why the conversation is relevant to the email.

Be Concise

Don't include small talk. Do you really want a paragraph on how I'm doing? Then you don't need to ask! :) Remember that brevity doesn't mean you're ditching politeness, just that you're leaving behind unnecessary bits that don't improve the quality of the discussion.

Include a numbered list of specific items you want addressed. This keeps me from having to double or triple-check that I've answered everything and means I don't have to copy/paste your questions into my reply. If you need to reply, use the same number scheme from the original email.

@ashedryden Respond to everything I ask in my emails, not just the first question. Or at least acknowledge you saw the other parts.

— Tiffany Green (@squareleaf) November 25, 2012

@ashedryden Read my email first. The entire paragraph

— Ed Cetera (@edcetera) November 25, 2012

Ask for Specific Actions without Creating Obligation

One of the biggest complaints with email is that it becomes a to do list out of necessity. My inbox is currently filled with emails requiring me to do things.

@ashedryden and my new least fave, sending the exact same email over and over when one doesn't get a response.

— Carol Nichols (@Carols10cents) November 25, 2012

While most emails are sent for this specific purpose, try to stay away from obligating the person on the other end. Quickly list what you want the outcome of the email to be and offer a way out of any obligation without guilt or fear of offense. State when you absolutely need a response by, being sure to give at least 48hrs.

I've recently created a few new email signatures that include the following:

Action needed: None; you do not need to reply to this email.

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Action needed by [date]: Please do X

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Action needed by [date]: Please follow-up this email with one of the following:

• I am interested and would like participate (invite me to the discussion, I will come prepared)
• I am interested, but don't want to participate. Notify me of the outcome.
• I trust everyone else to make these decisions/I don't have time to participate.