Flip, Don't Flop

I’ve been known to e-mail, talk on the speakerphone, gaze out my 64th-floor office window overlooking Chicago, drink my coffee, and scan a blog all at the same time – occasionally to my shame and regret because with all that going on, each activity distracting me from the other while, as I get older (and older), I have fewer brain cells to keep track and ensure that each action is completed successfully, I’ve sometimes clicked “send” when I wasn’t ready to send. Then all hell breaks loose. I usually blurt out an expletive, which freaks out whomever I’m talking to on the phone (especially if it’s my mother), so I immediately have to both quickly explain and excuse myself and abruptly hang up, whether that conversation is at its natural conclusion or not. Then I have to quickly e-mail my recipient and apologize for wasting his or her time with a half-finished e-mail. The I have to go back and rewrite the e-mail and resend. Then I have to silently damn myself for being sort of an idiot, which is the most unpleasant part of all. By this time I’ve made a fool of myself in front of two people – by phone and by e-mail – and my coffee is cold. But here’s how I’ve changed my ways (you’d think I’d stop multitasking, but you’d be wrong). Now I: write the body of my e-mail first; fill in the subject line second; and add the recipients third. In other words, I craft my e-mails backwards. Not only do I no longer accidentally, absentmindedly, and distractedly send half-written e-mails, but there have been two interesting and unintended side effects to this method of e-mailing. One, my subject lines are better because they're more focused. And two, I‘m targeting my e-mails better, adding fewer people to the “to” and “cc” lines because having written the message I instinctively realize that not everyone I had originally thought needed the e-mail actually does.  It’s a bit of work to get into the habit of flipping the order of the elements of writing an e-mail but it’s worth it. Better e-mails. Happier moms. Hotter coffee. It doesn’t get much better than that.

Comments

[Sherrilynne]

Another great post, full of excellent advice. One suggestion. Ditch DD and start going to Tim Hortons.

[Dan MacTough]

Good advice, and that's how I write email, too -- with one exception. My step #1 is attach all attachments. How many times have you sent an email saying "attached are the following" only you forgot to actually ***attach the documents.*** :-|

[Beth]

Y'know, I've always done that with emails that needed to be very carefully put together for tact or emotional reasons. It never occurred to me to do that with all emails. Good idea!

[Paul Chaney]

Steve Rubel shared this post in Google reader. I think he's on a mission to save the world from email hell.

Anyway, you're writing your emails the same way I write articles -- start with the body first, then give it a title. Very journalistic thinking if you ask me.

However, I've not been doing that where emails and/or blog posts are concerned, but I'm going to follow your lead here as it's very good advice.

[Melanie]

This advice is great for SmartPhone email, too. Small screens are great at hiding the To: and Bcc: lines at the top. If you're replying to an email, it's a super smart idea to ALWAYS scroll back up to the top of your teensy little screen before you hit send to make sure the folks you're about to send to are who you really want to send to!