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Four more ideas to improve your e-mail effectiveness

E-mail productivity and security tips accumulate everywhere. I thought I had covered the field comprehensively, but four more good ideas appear in the NYSBA J., Vol. 81, Nov./Dec. 2009 at 58-59 (See my post of Aug. 26, 2009: 30 e-mail effectiveness tips with 9 references.).

  1. Fill in the address box only when you are ready to send. Write the message, check the attachments, proofread, even pause to think a moment, and only then fill in the recipient’s name. A simple habit, but salutary.

  2. Set up group email lists. If you are part of a deal or have any set of people you write to regularly, do the work once to set up the group email and save time thereafter (and don’t inadvertently omit someone).

  3. Use an outbox feature. You don’t have to send your email immediately, while the keys are still hot. You can set your program to send all e-mails in the outbox at a particular time or only when you manually empty it. If even a small amount of time passes, you might reconsider whether and what you write.

  4. Add “no reply needed.” Include a note that says the recipient does not need to reply or does not need to copy you on subsequent messages. I don’t know an acronym, but why not NRN?