Email Tips / Best Practices
1. Set-Up: get your email system to work for you!
Spam filters
ƒ set up your spam filters to send as much of those worthless emails directly to your trash
Auto Alert
ƒ don’t suffer the distraction of an auto alert for new emails. I recommend turning it off
completely. If you must use it, set it for something reasonable, like every 20 minutes.
2. Processing
Timing
ƒ Don’t check your email first thing in the morning (begin your most important task first) or
during your most productive time of day.
ƒ Definitely don’t check your email every time your auto alert tells you there is a message.
ƒ And finally, consider reading and responding to emails in bulk during 1-3 blocks per day.
Reading and Responding
ƒ Don’t read your emails more than once. Rather, try to think, “Read, Reply, Next.” Accomplish
this by reading the email once, then: 1) answer immediately if possible or if it will take < 2
minutes; 2) delete it; 3) move it to a specific folder; 4) or put it in your @Action (you need to
respond but will take > 5 minutes) or @WaitingFor (someone else must do something before
you have an action) folders to deal with when you’re ready.
ƒ When you compose emails, save yourself and your addressee time by being brief. If you can
say it in just a few lines, do. This will help to keep the conversation moving. But don’t sacrifice
standard grammar, punctuation and capitalization unless you want to look like a 12-year-old.
ƒ Use “Reply to All” and “CC” options sparingly, only when it pertains to all recipients.
ƒ Another tip is to use ‘boiler plates’ for common responses (eg. signature blocks). Many email
programs will let you use multiple signature blocks – just name them appropriately so you can
select the one you want. Alternatively, you can create templates in a Word document and just
paste the response into your email.
ƒ And be honest with yourself, if you know you’re never going to respond to an email – get it out
of site (delete it)!
Strategies
ƒ Pick a method for reading your emails and stick with it.
ƒ Consider going from top to bottom; bottom to top
ƒ You may prefer just picking off the easy ones first
3. Archiving
Don’t use your inbox as a catchall folder
ƒ See the first bullet under ‘Reading and Responding’ above. Its amazingly liberating to have an
empty inbox!
Filing
ƒ Use the folder system – consider relevant categories (eg. clinical, teaching, research, service)
and then use subheadings (eg. Teaching-time mgmt; Teaching-lectures).
Reference
ƒ Either print out reference materials or save them to a folder. If you use the @ sign, it will go to
the top of your folder list (eg. @Reference-statistics; @Reference-methodologies)
CYA
ƒ You can use email to follow up phone conversations or meetings, “we agreed to …” or “we
talked about…” You don’t have to have the entire conversation by email if that is not the most
efficient method.
See the instructions on the next 3 pages for Lotus Notes instructions for: Turning off E-mail Notification,
Setting Up Filters, and Creating Custom E-Mail folders.
Email Tips
Page 1 of 4
Updated 1/25/2011
Turning Off E-mail Notification
•
From the FILE pull-down menu, click on
PREFERENCES – USER PREFERENCES
•
On the MAIL - GENERAL tab, deselect
CHECK FOR NEW MAIL EVERY X MINUTES
to disable new-mail notification
•
In your mail database, you can press F9 to see
new mail on command.
Email Tips
Page 2 of 4
Updated 1/25/2011
Setting Up Filters
•
Open your mail database and click the RULES folder
•
Click NEW RULE
•
Under SPECIFY CONDITIONS, select a part of messages to check
for things like spam (such as “sender” or “subject”), select a state
(such as “contains” or “is”), and type the criteria to check for (such
as the name of a certain person or a certain word). Click ADD to
create the new rule.
•
Under SPECIFY ACTIONS, select MOVE TO FOLDER, COPY TO
FOLDER, CHANGE IMPORTANCE TO, or DELETE.
•
If you selected MOVE TO FOLDER or COPY TO FOLDER, click
CHOOSE FOLDER and select a folder. If you selected CHANGE
IMPORTANCE TO, select an importance level.
•
Click ADD ACTION to deal appropriately with the message meeting your conditions.
•
Click OK.
Email Tips
Page 3 of 4
Updated 1/25/2011
Creating Custom E-mail Folders
•
•
Select or open the database where you want to create the folder.
Choose FOLDER – CREATE FOLDER
•
Enter a name for the folder in the FOLDER NAME box.
•
•
Click OK.
Note the resulting ‘Wards’ Folder under the ‘Clinical’
heading on the right.
Consider a folder structure that revolves around your promotion
criteria such as the following folder headings:
Clinical
Research
Teaching
Service
Then use appropriate subfolders to list the projects that may go
under each major heading. Other helpful folders might include: Grants, References, Travel, Congrats and
Thanks (I use this one for quotations that may go into my division chief letter at merit/promotion time!).
Email Tips
Page 4 of 4
Updated 1/25/2011