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Effective email writing doesn't help in these sort of cases, because the email is never even opened. What you should be asking instead is how to write the most

Effective email writing doesn't help in these sort of cases, because the email is never even opened. What you should be asking instead is how to write the most effective Email subject, so that the email is actually opened.

csydas 4y ago
This also. Avoid keywords, avoid "URGENT"/"PRIORITY"/crap like that, and pick a solid good thesis statement Don't try to categorize my time and attention, that's for me to decide, and you're just wasting characters in your title. Vague statements don't make me curious, they make me bored at best and frustrated at worst because it breaks my filters and it's hard to find. ("Maybe you can help on this" style titles are the worst as I have thousands of messages like this. I'll never find your conversation among them even if I want to) The right balance is probably something like 20% uniqueness 80% action needed. (these are bullshit numbers, just guessing) Unique item we're dealing with, action request of the email, line above the fold on email preview should state the relevancy for me right away (usually you get about 15 words for most email clients)
- al_borland 4y ago
  Where I work the "URGENT"/"PRIORITY" emails have been abused to the point the words have lost all meaning. Every time I see it I just skip right over it. There is probably a 1% chance it's something I actually care about and in that case someone else always brings it up in a meeting. What's worse is when people do this to your calendar. We have teams that send out a meeting invite to hundreds of people every time they do a deployment, and block off several hours or days. I don't care about their deployment at all, nor does it have any impact on my schedule. In these cases I'm forced to take an action (declining the meeting) or else my calendar is just a mess.
  - petre 4y ago
    This. I've reached a point where I ignore most of my e-mail. Not even bothering organising it. http://thecontextofthings.com/2018/06/28/inbox-usually-peoples-agendas-not/ http://thecontextofthings.com/2018/06/28/inbox-usually-peopl...

csydas 4y ago

This also. Avoid keywords, avoid "URGENT"/"PRIORITY"/crap like that, and pick a solid good thesis statement Don't try to categorize my time and attention, that's for me to decide, and you're just wasting characters in your title. Vague statements don't make me curious, they make me bored at best and frustrated at worst because it breaks my filters and it's hard to find. ("Maybe you can help on this" style titles are the worst as I have thousands of messages like this. I'll never find your conversation among them even if I want to) The right balance is probably something like 20% uniqueness 80% action needed. (these are bullshit numbers, just guessing) Unique item we're dealing with, action request of the email, line above the fold on email preview should state the relevancy for me right away (usually you get about 15 words for most email clients)

al_borland 4y ago
Where I work the "URGENT"/"PRIORITY" emails have been abused to the point the words have lost all meaning. Every time I see it I just skip right over it. There is probably a 1% chance it's something I actually care about and in that case someone else always brings it up in a meeting. What's worse is when people do this to your calendar. We have teams that send out a meeting invite to hundreds of people every time they do a deployment, and block off several hours or days. I don't care about their deployment at all, nor does it have any impact on my schedule. In these cases I'm forced to take an action (declining the meeting) or else my calendar is just a mess.
- petre 4y ago
  This. I've reached a point where I ignore most of my e-mail. Not even bothering organising it. http://thecontextofthings.com/2018/06/28/inbox-usually-peoples-agendas-not/ http://thecontextofthings.com/2018/06/28/inbox-usually-peopl...