[Grad-postdoc-assn] How to use email effectively: Tips

[Valerie Sloan]

Dear all,

I wanted to pass along a few tips on using email (or not) to make your work
collaborations or teamwork more effective:

*Email Tips*

1. For *complex* or *sensitive* topics, avoid using email. Instead, discuss
over the phone, in person, or over video chat.

2. Before you click "send," remove any content that you wouldn't want to
have forwarded to the wrong place. Things happen. Also be aware that emails
at places like NCAR and universities is not usually confidential, because
they are publicly funded.

3. Read your email three times before sending it out. Yup, three times,
especially for more important or lengthy messages. You'll often find
yourself editing the language on each round.

4. Include links in the email to shared documents or spreadsheets (for
getting input, brainstorming, or having people sign up for things). This
boosts efficiency and collaboration.

5. Follow up after meetings with an email itemizing action items and
identifying who is responsible for completing them. Follow-up emails with
action items help people to know what they have to do before the next
meeting, and are useful to refer back to later if (or when) you forget how
things were left at the last meeting.

Here are some more tips that I like from one web page. There are many more
resources out there on this:

   - Summarize Your Message in Your Subject Line. ...
   - Keep It Focused and Short. ...
   - Tell the Recipient What Action to *Take*. ...
   - Know When Not to Send an *Email*. ...
   - Cut Back on the CC-ing.

Hope that these help.  I am still learning how to do these things more
fully!

Got any other tips?  Send them to me and I can compile them...

Val

-- 
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Valerie Sloan, Ph.D.
NCAR Education & Outreach
National Center for Atmospheric Research
P.O. Box 3000
Boulder, CO 80307-3000
Office: 303-497-2752
Email: vsloan at ucar.edu
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