Three Ways I've Used Email Incorrectly

There's no doubt that email has become the dominant form of communications in today's world. After all, it provides several major benefits:

• It is super convenient,
• It can be used as a to-do list in a lot of situations,
• It allows us to reach out to colleagues without interrupting them, and
• We can respond to a colleague in a time frame that is, at least partially, conducive to our own personal schedule.

What's not to like?!

Yet, like any tool - convenience breeds misuse, which can easily lead to reduced effectiveness. The following are a few ways I've found myself (and others) using email in ways that does not obtain the intended or desired result.

Trying to convey complex information

As much as I try to be succinct and to the point, asking a nuanced question when there has been no previously established context is very difficult.

Much like social media is a poor medium for a debate, email tends to be a poor medium for describing a situation with a lot of moving parts. I've found that in these scenarios, it is easy to gloss over important points of cognition for the reader. This usually happens because I am so deep in the weeds that I simply don't think of any other way that the variables could be interpreted. And, the more points of cognition that exist in the subject matter, the higher the chance that the reader gets to the end, and is completely lost. As a result, the reader often replies back with an answer to what they understand the issue as being. Sometimes, the reader replies back with 'huh?', putting me back to square one. Frustration builds on both sides.

By contrast, a simple phone call, or person-to-person dialogue to establish context and discuss the fine points of the issue, is far more effective. This way, the recipient has the opportunity to ask clarifying questions, and I have a much higher chance of getting my question answered in a meaningful way.

Faux Progress

Another trap I've found myself falling into is the sending of an email and thinking that forward progress has been made simply because something is off my plate.

Lets say, for example, that I need a piece of information from someone in order to keep things moving with a project. I email the person who has the information, but I may now be at a stopping point until that person replies. The trap is that my brain thinks I've done what I can, I'm waiting on the other person, and then I move on with my day thinking that progress has been made on that project.

A lot of times, all that has happened is that I've wasted time for both me and the recipient. They are likely very busy, so their natural inclination is to reply back via email with clarification questions (see nuanced content, above), and a long back-and-forth email chain that takes place over an extended period of time has begun. Again, it'd have been much more efficient to set up a simple phone call or person-to-person dialogue when both people could be mentally present to the situation.

Lack of Direction

Finally, another really common mistake I've made is the lack of a clear action plan, or lack of what I'm looking for from recipients. Having been on the other side, I've received emails where there are multiple people on the recipient list, and it's not clear who should respond. The email version of bystander apathy runs rather high, and it's easy to think that someone else on the recipient list is better qualified to provide a response.

In this scenario, it's helpful if the email calls out what action items are expected from various individual parties. Even if it's just to hey 'Hey Alice - FYI, no action needed on your part' - that is extremely helpful.

The above are just a few ways I've misused email, where it's been an impediment to communications, instead of facilitating it.

To that end, here are a few general rules I find helpful when writing up an email:

• Make sure both sides have all necessary context of a situation before referencing it in an email.
• Keep questions short, to the point, and written in a way to likewise elicit a short and simple reply.
• When emailing multiple people about something requiring action, call out who I am looking to take said action.
• Finally, take a few moments, and read the email in a contextual vacuum and do what I can to make it easy for the reader. It may mean taking a few minutes to repeat some information that is embedded in a reply further down - but in the long run, it saves everyone time and effort.