How to Manage Your Email & Inbox – Lessons 16-20
Wasn't e-mail supposed to make our life less complicated? Do you find yourself spending way too much time on e-mail every day? Would you like to reduce the size of your ever expanding inbox? That's why I have put together my new book called "The E-mail Manual". It is the book you should have received when you first started using e-mail. I think if everybody had a copy of this book on their desks and read it before they started using e-mail, there would be a fewer problems and issues with using and managing e-mail. Please enjoy these 5 email strategies. Be on the lookout for my other articles on how to better manage your e-mail and reduce the size of your inbox.
16. Delete junk emails as fast as they arrive (and set up the spam filter)
Don't let your email box fill up with spam, newsletters, or emails that you will not read again. An empty Inbox is an efficient email box. Learn how to use the ‘junk Email' filter so that you won't keep getting email from people or organisations you don't want to hear from again.
17. Set outlook up to empty your deleted items mail box every time you exit
Not a lot of good can come from hundreds of deleted items in your deleted folder in Outlook.
Get rid of it every day (at at least every week) by setting up the option of deleting email every time you exit Outlook.
If you have Emails in there you want to save, don't delete them in the first place; instead put them in a folder to read later.
18. Be sure you understand the difference between cc and bcc
CC stands for Courtesy Copy and BCC stands for Blind Courtesy Copy. The difference is that if you are sending an email to one person and wants others to see the Email, you add the email addresses of others who you want to see the email also and put their addresses in the CC box. The email is not for them to action. It is simply a courtesy to them in the loop.
If you want to send the message to someone else but not disclose that you are doing so, you use BCC. Blind Courtesy Copy sends that person a copy of the Email, however their name is not shown to the others who also receive the Email.
The pros and cons of Blind Courtesy Copy?
CON
Some people use blind courtesy copy as a way of protecting their butts. In other words, they will surreptitiously put the email address of their manager in the BCC area.
While including your manager as a silent receiver can sometimes be a good idea (as a simple courtesy or to keep them informed of your progress with a client), it's rather sneaky if you are including them for ulterior motives or ‘political' reasons.
PROS
One of the advantages of using BCC would be sending out something like a request or a memo to a group of suppliers or providers that are all competitors. For example you might want to get a price on a particular product from half a dozen of your preferred suppliers.
First of all, you don't want all of the suppliers to know who you buy from. Second of all you don't want each of them to know who you are sending this email to. It would make good sense to place all of the email addresses of your suppliers in the BCC area.
Obviously when you send out the email you will not be addressing it to a particular person so there will be no need for a formal greeting with a person's name at the very beginning of the Email.
19. Don't use 'Emoticons'' or other email shorthand for business
Smiley faces and other ‘emoticons' can add a nice touch when emailing friends or when using SMS on your mobile phone. It's common for people to text you with phrases such as LOL for ‘Laugh out Loud', SYS for ‘See You Soon' or FYI to say ‘For Your Information'.
So what is the business rule for using emoticons, acronyms and other abbreviations such as these?
It's a simple rule – don't. Treat every work email like a business conversation on the phone.
After all, you want your email to be taken seriously so stay away from anything cute or trendy when it comes to work Emails. Leave the fun stuff for your Hotmail or Gmail account. Work email is strictly for business.
20. Stay away from fancy fonts, colours or special effects
A business email that is dressed up with frilly stationary and other special effects lessens the business impact of the communication.
Fonts such as Tahoma 10 point or Calibri 11 point are the best fonts to use for sending and reading Email.
Stay away from fonts such as Comic Sans and Times New Roman for Email.
Times New Roman is great as a printed font, but not so good for reading off a computer monitor.
Comic Sans is a very cute, child-like font. It is great for casual, personal Emails, but quite inappropriate in a corporate setting.
If you would like to learn how to better manage your e-mail or inbox, why not consider my Zero Inbox training program? This e-mail management course is available in Australia and will soon be available online. You can visit, http://www.success.net.au/seminars/zero-inbox.html to learn more about how to better manage your e-mail and reduce your inbox. Alternatively, you can visit: http://www.zero-inbox.com/
16. Delete junk emails as fast as they arrive (and set up the spam filter)
Don't let your email box fill up with spam, newsletters, or emails that you will not read again. An empty Inbox is an efficient email box. Learn how to use the ‘junk Email' filter so that you won't keep getting email from people or organisations you don't want to hear from again.
17. Set outlook up to empty your deleted items mail box every time you exit
Not a lot of good can come from hundreds of deleted items in your deleted folder in Outlook.
Get rid of it every day (at at least every week) by setting up the option of deleting email every time you exit Outlook.
If you have Emails in there you want to save, don't delete them in the first place; instead put them in a folder to read later.
18. Be sure you understand the difference between cc and bcc
CC stands for Courtesy Copy and BCC stands for Blind Courtesy Copy. The difference is that if you are sending an email to one person and wants others to see the Email, you add the email addresses of others who you want to see the email also and put their addresses in the CC box. The email is not for them to action. It is simply a courtesy to them in the loop.
If you want to send the message to someone else but not disclose that you are doing so, you use BCC. Blind Courtesy Copy sends that person a copy of the Email, however their name is not shown to the others who also receive the Email.
The pros and cons of Blind Courtesy Copy?
CON
Some people use blind courtesy copy as a way of protecting their butts. In other words, they will surreptitiously put the email address of their manager in the BCC area.
While including your manager as a silent receiver can sometimes be a good idea (as a simple courtesy or to keep them informed of your progress with a client), it's rather sneaky if you are including them for ulterior motives or ‘political' reasons.
PROS
One of the advantages of using BCC would be sending out something like a request or a memo to a group of suppliers or providers that are all competitors. For example you might want to get a price on a particular product from half a dozen of your preferred suppliers.
First of all, you don't want all of the suppliers to know who you buy from. Second of all you don't want each of them to know who you are sending this email to. It would make good sense to place all of the email addresses of your suppliers in the BCC area.
Obviously when you send out the email you will not be addressing it to a particular person so there will be no need for a formal greeting with a person's name at the very beginning of the Email.
19. Don't use 'Emoticons'' or other email shorthand for business
Smiley faces and other ‘emoticons' can add a nice touch when emailing friends or when using SMS on your mobile phone. It's common for people to text you with phrases such as LOL for ‘Laugh out Loud', SYS for ‘See You Soon' or FYI to say ‘For Your Information'.
So what is the business rule for using emoticons, acronyms and other abbreviations such as these?
It's a simple rule – don't. Treat every work email like a business conversation on the phone.
After all, you want your email to be taken seriously so stay away from anything cute or trendy when it comes to work Emails. Leave the fun stuff for your Hotmail or Gmail account. Work email is strictly for business.
20. Stay away from fancy fonts, colours or special effects
A business email that is dressed up with frilly stationary and other special effects lessens the business impact of the communication.
Fonts such as Tahoma 10 point or Calibri 11 point are the best fonts to use for sending and reading Email.
Stay away from fonts such as Comic Sans and Times New Roman for Email.
Times New Roman is great as a printed font, but not so good for reading off a computer monitor.
Comic Sans is a very cute, child-like font. It is great for casual, personal Emails, but quite inappropriate in a corporate setting.
If you would like to learn how to better manage your e-mail or inbox, why not consider my Zero Inbox training program? This e-mail management course is available in Australia and will soon be available online. You can visit, http://www.success.net.au/seminars/zero-inbox.html to learn more about how to better manage your e-mail and reduce your inbox. Alternatively, you can visit: http://www.zero-inbox.com/
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