Geeky Thinking An "Email Guideline"

Geeky thinking an “Email Guideline” GeekyThinking.blogspot.
com
Geeky Thinking an “Email Guideline”
SUMMARY:
What’s this doc about?.................................................................................................................... 1
Assumptions.................................................................................................................................. 1
Organize & manage ........................................................................................................................ 1
Folders ..................................................................................................................................... 1
Flags ........................................................................................................................................ 3
Frequency................................................................................................................................. 3
Internet behavior....................................................................................................................... 4
General rules................................................................................................................................. 4
Reading .................................................................................................................................... 4
Writing ..................................................................................................................................... 5
What’s this doc about?

Should provide guidance to employees on how to best make use of email
within their professional conversations, no matter if it is about colleagues,
subordinates or clients. It refers to mandatory rules, but also best practice or nice-
to-have, especially focused on efficiency and intelligibility of the communication.
This is not about writing nicer emails, this is about writing efficient and clear
emails.
Assumptions
1. The company is using only Microsoft Outlook as emailing tool, eventually
published as web Exchange Server version.
2. Employees work with email, therefore executing office work.
Organize & manage
Folders
1. Not keeping everything in Inbox. As soon as email becomes
obsolete, move it into a special folder. Do NOT leave everything in
Inbox.
2. Categorize. Make full usage of “Categories...” option on right-click

(within Outlook). Create categories for various projects,
departments, internal initiatives, main clients, etc. Place each email
within one or more categories. This will help a lot when filtering
information. Don’t categorize if you don’t plan on filter your
information or if you don’t have much information. Once you
categorize, don’t skip emails. A rule is for everything.
3. Classification. Classify the emails you are about to send depending

on various areas. Here’s a suggestion but it certainly can differ
from one business to another:
• Importance
i. High
ii. Medium
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Geeky thinking an “Email Guideline” GeekyThinking.blogspot.com
iii. Low
• Addressed to
i. Peers
ii. Subordinates
iii. Providers
iv. Management
v. Clients
vi. Personal
• Type
i. General Info (GI)
ii. Info that requires special attention (SP)
iii. Technical info (TH)
iv. Confidential info (HC)
v. Response to critical question (RE)
vi. Decision (DC)
vii. Request for Decision (RD)
viii. Task (TK)
ix. Meeting request (MR)
x. Funny, other... (OT)
Once established, apply it rigorously to all emails. Communicate to
everyone or form a company policy on how to label emails as part
of their title, eventually using shortcuts GI-general info, SP-special
attention, etc...
If not communicated as internal methodology, then not known and
inefficiently applied.
4. Suggested folders structure. Structure folders per business

meaning, for example, per project, per client, etc. Generate more
hierarchical levels within folders, but the suggested number of
levels is 3. For example we can use the following structure:
• Client
o Project
! Year
Make sure that if you use the above structure you don’t over-
classify by using “Categories...” feature for the same values. It
will just duplicate information.
5. Organize “Sent Items”. Follow same structure for Sent Items. This
is a folder that tends to be ignored but it is critical for business
continuity.
6. Backup frequently. Outlook has a feature named “Import and

Export” that lets you export all email data to a file named personal
folder and open it later with Outlook. Create personal archives
monthly.
7. Keep archives safe. Do not keep them all in same place. Archive
them, password them and write DVDs. Make sure they are safe
and available for long term. This should also be a company policy
that gets emails saved at server side.
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8. Remove old data. When getting to an year of email, remove most

of it (leave the last month of data there, for example). Make sure
you already backed up everything so you don’t lose it. By applying
this rule you help Outlook applying it’s indexing and you can find
emails better.
Flags
1. Don’t use Flags. Flags are confusing unless used consistently. We

suggest to use Categories instead: there will be no room for
mistake.
2. Don’t use flags. Really! Usage of flags is efficient when you mark
top priorities with Red. Any combination of colors and meanings
seems not to be efficient in either personal or corporate culture.
Frequency
1. Focus on work, address email in batches. Leave your Outlook

connected to server and automatically getting emails but do NOT
read / respond unless highly critical emails are showing up. If you
can afford to leave it disconnected and check every couple of hours
or so it would be great. Develop a list of priorities that you have to
perform for the day and follow up that priorities.
2. Don’t skip emails, just manage them correctly. Allocate sufficient

time for emails but read them in batches. In case you are
performing a task that requires your attention and you are not in
charge of real-time processes, equipment or teams, then better
turn automatically check off, so Outlook will only bring emails on
manual request.
3. General rules of thumb on email timing. Email sending and

receiving is one of the most non-productive and non-efficient tasks
within the internet days. Extensive communication using emails will
always lead to inefficiency in task execution. More than 3 hours a
day for email management should be a productivity warning sign.
Therefore plan to:
• Reply to emails 3 times a day, for no more than 30 minutes
each.
• Read emails 3 times a day for no more than 20 minutes
each.
• Generate to-do for writing long emails as documents with a
clear purpose: project specifications for example.
• Call!
• Meet!
4. Answer! All emails have to have an answer no matter their topic.

You are supposed to answer all emails that have you in the TO
address. When it is informational and there it is no need for you to
provide feedback then it is accepted to ignore it. If you are
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requested to supply information or take any action, then you

should answer depending on the priority of that email. You
basically have to answer:
• During next hours to very urgent issues (if it would require
an answer faster than “next hours” that person would be
calling already)
• During next hours to emails that request you to do
something and you know that you will NOT be able to do it
(or at least not in time)
• During next day for most of the emails
• During the given period of time to emails that specify that
period of time.
Even if you don’t have an answer and you are requested to say
something (even implies that you have to say something even if not
especially appointed) then please provide back a reason or the simple
fact that you are not able to answer.
5. Don’t use reminder. Make sure you follow up your actions and also
other people requested actions by checking out frequently your
tasks (at least once a day). Suggestion: for your To Do, use
“Tasks” section of Outlook and for the assignments you generate
for others, use “Notes” section of Outlook.
Internet behavior
1. Use email only for office. Do NOT submit your email to ANY
professional (or not) website that requests it. Use a separate
email, created especially for this need (eventual subscriptions or
validations), then forward the emails on your official business
address it if needed. Business email address is only for internal
usage and also to be communicated to peers, providers and clients.
2. Use only Outlook and official tools. Do not use other tools than
company ones to check your email account, same for most of the
web based email tools. Never submit your account information on
any external website, no matter how trustful.
General rules
Reading
1. Keep emails unread until all required actions are taken. Mark
emails as read only when it is about an informational email. If
actions are required from your part, either leave it un-read or mark
it somehow. Do NOT read an email that needs follow up and leave
it as it is. It will mainly go to “History” in most of the cases. If you
mark it as read and actions still to be taken, you either generate a
Task or you generate a Note.
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2. Setting up reminders is not recommended. Usually generating

tasks and to-do lists is more efficient. Setup tasks that you monitor
frequent. This way you should be able to see task among others,
therefore establish a list of priorities. Setting up reminders without
a task will only remind you about the due date, not giving an
overview of priorities, therefore not efficient. It might lead to
resolution for urgent tasks but not for the important ones.
3. Generate To Do Lists. Every time you read an email, extract out of

it your (or your team’s) To Do! Hint: one of the simplest actions
when reading such an email is to drag it into your “Tasks” bar and
drop it into the “Tasks”. It will automatically prompt you for a To
Do. You can just parse the text right there and leave only the “To
Do”.
4. Manage properly the automated emails. Since there are various

systems that generate emails to notify specific events, make sure
you are either configuring them to notify critical events that really
require your action or you don’t subscribe to them. If you subscribe
to a system that notifies very frequent events, don’t place them
into inbox and don’t review them unless you do it with a certain
frequency and you really need to take actions on them (Yes, there
are situations when you receive notification and information that
you can’t refuse but no actual constructive action required from
you).
5. If it takes a few minutes, just do it. Some of the emails require you
to answer and you already know the answer. Don’t generate a task
if the answer is a simple Yes or No. Chose the shortest option
always: either generate a task if it takes less time or just write the
email if it takes you less or close to adding a task in Outlook.
Writing
1. Write short emails. Emails are efficient only if short. This is the
only way you benefit of online communication. Short emails means
a very focused message, usually no longer that 10 to 20 lines.
2. Split and place titles. If you have more than one clear message per
email, split the email in clear, small paragraphs and place a title for
every paragraph. Sometimes the receiver will only read titles.
3. Separate in attachments long details. An email should be no more

than one page, no matter the message. If bigger (2 pages for
example), then write e document and email as attachment and
within the email body describe briefly what the document is about.
4. Bold significant ideas. Select out of each paragraph (10 lines for
example) the most significant word and then bold it. You can bold
various words or an expression but only if words are part of same
expression. Otherwise, make sure you only bold the minimum
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words needed. Most of the people would like to get the message
out of email in about 5 seconds after they opened it. If you bold
the most important words, you will get your message across or get
the attention further.
5. Single text style. Do not use various text style. Bold is the only one
permitted.
6. Single color: black. Do not use font colors ever. Black is the only
one permitted.
7. Single font. Do not use combined fonts. One font is permitted,

usually one of the most common fonts (Arial, Verdana, Times New
Roman, Courier, ...) Try to stick to default. Most of the other
persons will do the same.
8. No backgrounds & other “art”. Do not use backgrounds or schemes

unless emails are generated for special occasions.
9. Behave according to email type. When writing an email, place it

within one of the email types before even beginning. This will allow
you to be sloppy or be meticulous, depending on email type.
10. Do not try to send out emotions. They never work through office
email. Stick to the subject, never be sarcastic, funny, mad, etc.
11. Start with the core, honest, plain message – add wrapper after.
When you have to communicate a lot, start the email DRAFT with
the very short message as you would tell it to yourself. Build then
around the core (truly honest and short) message a layer of
minimum required details so the core message is understood.
Don’t start the email with a story, don’t start it with the beginning.
Start it with the core message, then add the rest. With some
experience, you will reach on sticking to the core message only.
12. Subject is critical. Subject is very important, therefore address it

with full attention. Remember we established you only open critical
emails while you are focused on something else, therefore make
sure your subject communicates exactly what the email is about. If
you define all emails as critical or use titles of high impact, the
other party might start to ignore your future messages since he
will classify you as the “high priority person” and consider you just
email everything like that.
13. Don’t use high priority when emailing. Do NOT abuse the strong
wording, the priorities and the red flags, etc. You should never
send an email with high priority unless the other parties are usually
not paying attention or they proved already that they are not
responsive enough. Consider that each message is already
important for the other part, therefore marking it on purpose as
important might only influence him/her negatively.
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14. Don’t request reader’s confirmation. Never request the respondent

to confirm he read your email unless you need to know this fact.
Your emails will always be read; forcing user to confirm places
him/her in the state of mind of an executive just receiving a task
from you. Unless you usually have issues or doubts that your
emails are not read by that person do not enforce the confirmation.
15. Instead of priority be accurate in your request. For every email

that needs to be addressed in a timely manner, place in the subject
the word URGENT. Make sure you specify the due-date and the
reason within email body, otherwise the URGENT word will be
interpreted along with the other 10 “urgent” words that the other
part might have already received from other senders. He should be
able to priorities and always consider that the other party might
already have 10 urgencies.
16. Apply classification: use email type in subject. Label all subjects
with the email type but ONLY if emailed within <company>.
Receiving an email where title says “URGENT (12/08/2000)
[Request for decision] – Agreement on project XXX estimate”
might seem a busy title but it certainly gets the attention required.
Same for “[General Info] – Usage of elevators”
17. Do not over-label. Labeling emails is very efficient and every email
should be labeled / classified as only ONE type of information. This
works well with human capacity of receiving, parsing and
organizing information. Mixing various subjects and email type
within same email might work only in special cases when such an
email is requested and expected. Still, it is much more efficient to
group subjects of same class in one email and label it.
18. Do not assume, instead describe briefly. Do not assume anything

unless very clearly previously established. Make sure that, for
example, when you request something, you always post yourself
all possible questions on the matter (who, when, what, how...) and
only where not clear, add some short details.
19. Include significant conversation elements. When replying do not

assume the initial email writer will remember very clear what are
you talking about. Make sure you include the significant
conversation and also you remove nouns so he/she knows what it
is about. Not always carry with you the entire thread of emails.
Sometimes when various sections are obsolete, you can cut
sections of it. If writing to a manager or even a receiver that was
not in the beginning of the entire discussion, write a very brief
summary of the problem, then only attach full conversation, don’t
just forward emails.
20. Provide full URL. When typing in web URL (links) always type full
text to make sure the respondent gets the full URL. Some tools
allow you to define a hyperlink with a different text. It is not
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efficient to use this feature. Make sure the web URL is placed on a
single line, not combined within text.
21. Describe attachment within email body. When using attachments

ALWAYS place a small description of it within email, something to
let the user know the importance, the basic content and even size /
complexity. Most of the attachments are going to be addressed at
a later time. In order to have your peer estimate that “other time”
you need to provide him/her some info.
22. Small attachments. Attachments should always have a decent

size. Everything bigger that 2-3 MB should be hosted and sent as a
link / ftp.
23. Split in separated paragraphs. Break up email content in

paragraphs even if addressing one clear message. Reading is
difficult when all text comes in one place.
24. Wrap text. Hit the Enter key and organize text already wrapped.
Sometime it is very important that your peer will see the text
exactly as you see it, do not let it to his screen resolution and
email application decision.
25. Don’t use Caps Lock. Usage of Caps is allowed only when yelling.
Interpret by yourself caps letters as yelling to the other part. If
email has to send this type of message, then write it using Caps.
Otherwise don’t try to send out emotions such as yelling or
anything similar within emails. We will let the yelling for phones or
face-to-face meetings. Email is quiet and objective.
26. Do NOT use smiley. They are indeed common but they do not
express your objective reaction and they can be very easy
interpreted wrong. Are you laughing at me, with me, about me, are
you just sarcastic, .... etc...
27. Message structure should easily lead to resolution of issues

presented. Whenever posting a question feel free to suggest
options for answers and even your favorite / suggested answer.
Emails should follow the “don’t make me think” rule: do not
assume the respondent has any idea about what are you describing
or even the time or even interest to consider it seriously. Therefore
the emails should contain a brief description of the problem, the
question as clear as possible, the list of options, the suggested
option. If you do that, in most of the cases you get your suggested
option as feedback, especially from people that trust you or from
lazy ones that will not take it serious, or from incompetent ones
that cannot assume a resolution anyway.
28. Clear assignments. Readers tend to confuse generic questions with

questions addressed to them. Make sure when typing a message
that every reader knows the question is addressed to him
especially and that you expect an answer from hum by that date. If
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you can briefly describe what should answer clarify then you did
the job of efficient communication: you will bet the response in one
email and not waste a long thread of emails. Readers tent to
interpret and assume things, this is why you should leave no room
for interpretation.
29. Spell check your message both automatically and by yourself.

Writing a correct email message as grammar is mandatory. Most of
the people will not see the true value of your message if
misspelled. Some will have a poor impression on you, some will
even feel offended.
30. Read it once before send. Before sending a message always read
it again. Only once and fast, but you have to read it, even for spell
checking sake.
31. Verify that it gets sent. It often happens that we write an email as
a reply to an urgent issue and then we run away to another high
priority. Sometimes due to technical issues, the email does not get
sent. Excuses like “I wrote it but it didn’t got sent” are only making
things worse. Check that your email is no longer in Outbox, but it
is in Sent folder.
32. Carefully address important issues. Write very important emails in

advance. When done, let a few hours to pass then read them
again. A “second set of eyes” could help (if you involve a peer to
validate your message).
33. Sign emails. Make sure your email is signed, either with your
official title and contact information (outside vendors or clients
especially) or basic name (internal, colleagues) but avoid nick
names. Short names, other names are ok, but not nicknames.
34. Structure your email and always consider all components. A

message might have, besides its basic components, the following
attributes:
• Objective (what are you trying to achieve with it)
• Cause (why do you have to write your message as an
email)
• Wrapping (additional information that surrounds “the core
message”)
• Task assigned (you request something from somebody)
• Questions to be responded (same as task assigned but it
only involves communication)
• Decisions you take
• References to previous information (make sure everyone
knows what are you referring at)
Make sure you consider each one of these attributes and review
the email message so it contains the basic information about them.
35. Salute but simple. Always start your message by saluting the
other part. Avoid usage of “dear” and other opening words. “Hello
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AAA” will just do it. Do not use timing references since you cannot
count on your email to be read in the morning or afternoon. When
multiple parties receiving the email do not salute everyone, use
just “Hello”.
36. Make full usage of punctuation. This is extremely important when

you try to make a point or communicate critical messages.
37. Type the full words. Do not use shortcuts or anything that
suggests the meaning of a word.
38. Careful with recipients. Before hitting “Send”, always check the
“To” and “CC” and “BCC” fields. Otherwise you might have critical
issues disclosed to undesired recipients.
39. Always mark the confidential information and make sure the level
of confidentiality is known. Make sure the other part understands
what is he/she supposed to do / not do with the message.
Specifying “high” or “top” might not be understood by users.
40. Email is for communication related to work, it is NOT work. Don’t

use office email as prove of your work, of your decisions and
meetings. This is not efficient, company business processes should
not require email usage for validation and also not count on email
for sharing information, etc. Email is strictly related to
communication and getting your activities organized but not at all
related to business processes. Task assignments, status reports,
etc... should be developed outside email system or else you reach
to inefficient processes, based on communication instead of
focusing of execution.
41. Do not rely processes on emails. Statistically all processes that

involve frequent emails lead to inefficiency especially because
emailing process is not standard, involves human input, etc. Even
if during processes email is tolerated (such as Client requesting
changes or Project Manager altering plans, etc...) the process itself
should not rely on emailing such as, for example, having email as a
required step (if PM did not sent an email with approval on specs,
users cannot execute tasks according to specs). Even if the
example sounds extremely well justified from business perspective,
having “email” involved in this just adds extra work. Instead, use a
versioning system, a document manager or a business processes
management that leads only to a click or an upload from PM, this
takes certainly 5 minutes less than writing an email. Sometimes
removing the “email” out of business processes phases reduced
Project Management activity with 30%... with no additional costs
since it was used open source technology for document
management.
42. Resolve problems with the active resources, do not escalade

unless directly. Do NOT add in the email TO, CC or BCC anyone
else than the ones that will take some action after the email is
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sent. Avoid at any cost possible CC to higher ranks as prove of

your work or as forcing the other part to execute or be aware of
importance. Always address only to the parts that will react and
that are contributing directly to your objective. If:
• You need to prove it to your boss, just FWD to it after or,
even better than that: mark some task completed on your
project plan.
• You need to address the email to higher ranks on the other
part: address a second short email to the parties involved,
describing that the “higher rank” has to do. Remember the
“do not make me think” rule: the bosses might not know /
not have the time / not guess the required reaction and this
will either turn on bad or will require a lot of time from “the
boss” to parse and decide. This is again bad and inefficient.
Remember to escalade an issue by attaching it to an email
and communicate clearly about it to the NEW targeted
recipient, since you have a new objective: the escalation of
the situation itself.
43. Minimum recipients – the less you use, the less you explain, the
faster you get feedback. You should be very carefully on selecting
the persons in TO and CC. Always add the minimum. Various rules
apply here, depending on email content and various other, focus
on minimum recipients so you don’t have to add too many details.
44. Never escalade to more than one hierarchical level. Once the
problem reported, involve both your direct manager and the
recipient’s direct managers. Never go further to escalade the issue:
it is already other people’s job. There it is an exception to this rule:
if business critical issues are in place and the first layer of
management does not take action, write down a memo and discuss
it with both direct management layers, suggesting escalation.
45. Avoid loops – get involved. If an email is addressed to you and

you are not supposed to be involved in that issue, then don’t leave
it as it is. Identify who is the rightful resource to be involved and
forward the message with the information on it. If you just ignore
it or reply to it in order to deny your action, then you will generate
loops.
46. Use email groups. Create email groups in case of support or

frequent addressed topics and use them. Do not place individuals
in front of support and helpdesk systems.
47. Don’t mix official with personal. In the TO field, make sure you
don’t mix up office email with personal emails of some recipients.
They should not be visible to other recipients. Do not assume they
all know about each other. When writing an official email, do not
mix the content with personal content, write two separate emails
for that.
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48. Use simple but constant email structure. Basic email body should
contain:
1. Salutation. Use “Hello”
2. Briefing. Explain what are you talking about in a very simple
line. Laconic.
3. Message core / objective. As clear as possible.
4. Reference to previous actions.
5. Who in the email is supposed to do what, when and how?
6. Enclosure with confidentiality or other info.
7. “Thank you”, “Best regards”,...
8. Signature, as simple as possible. Your full name, website and
email are already known from the FROM field. Use short name
and phone/mobile. Address just in case of client or any possible
official communication.
49. A picture is a 1000 words. Instead of describing complex

processes or other details, sometimes drawing a picture either
using a tool (MS Visio, PowerPoint) or by hand and scan it as an
image will work a lot more better. Draw your ideas on paper, scan
them and email with brief description. It will work faster and have
a much larger impact and outcome. Never mind your drawing
skills, we are all the same here.
50. Use versioning. In case you email documents and images and you
generate sequential versions of the same document and email it
back and forth to participants, make sure you always have a
document header referring at version, log of dates and authors
modifying document’s content.
51. Take it aside. In case you debate various ideas and you generate a
communication thread, then you better start summarizing the main
ideas into an attached document and start it al over. Don’t circulate
on and on a thread of more than 10 emails, users will not read that
information again and again.
52. Don’t use bullets, use numbering. Bullets are ok when you
organize presentations but numbering is more efficient since you
can always refer back at special ideas within emails. Best is to
number your main ideas and reference them if needed. All next
conversation threads can just point out something like “Agree with
1, really having issues with 2” removing all referencing and
clarifications that might waste time. Prepare your recipient for
efficiency.
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Geeky thinking an “Email Guideline” GeekyThinking.blogspot.

Geeky Thinking an “Email Guideline”

What’s this doc about?

Organize & manage

2. Categorize. Make full usage of “Categories...” option on right-click

3. Classification. Classify the emails you are about to send depending

4. Suggested folders structure. Structure folders per business

6. Backup frequently. Outlook has a feature named “Import and

8. Remove old data. When getting to an year of email, remove most

1. Don’t use Flags. Flags are confusing unless used consistently. We

1. Focus on work, address email in batches. Leave your Outlook

2. Don’t skip emails, just manage them correctly. Allocate sufficient

3. General rules of thumb on email timing. Email sending and

4. Answer! All emails have to have an answer no matter their topic.

requested to supply information or take any action, then you

2. Setting up reminders is not recommended. Usually generating

3. Generate To Do Lists. Every time you read an email, extract out of

4. Manage properly the automated emails. Since there are various

3. Separate in attachments long details. An email should be no more

7. Single font. Do not use combined fonts. One font is permitted,

8. No backgrounds & other “art”. Do not use backgrounds or schemes

9. Behave according to email type. When writing an email, place it

12. Subject is critical. Subject is very important, therefore address it

14. Don’t request reader’s confirmation. Never request the respondent

15. Instead of priority be accurate in your request. For every email

18. Do not assume, instead describe briefly. Do not assume anything

19. Include significant conversation elements. When replying do not

21. Describe attachment within email body. When using attachments

22. Small attachments. Attachments should always have a decent

23. Split in separated paragraphs. Break up email content in

27. Message structure should easily lead to resolution of issues

28. Clear assignments. Readers tend to confuse generic questions with

29. Spell check your message both automatically and by yourself.

32. Carefully address important issues. Write very important emails in

34. Structure your email and always consider all components. A

36. Make full usage of punctuation. This is extremely important when

40. Email is for communication related to work, it is NOT work. Don’t

41. Do not rely processes on emails. Statistically all processes that

42. Resolve problems with the active resources, do not escalade

sent. Avoid at any cost possible CC to higher ranks as prove of

45. Avoid loops – get involved. If an email is addressed to you and

46. Use email groups. Create email groups in case of support or

49. A picture is a 1000 words. Instead of describing complex

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