Email
Pronounced as dead, email is more alive and powerful, than ever.
General Recommendations
- one topic per email
- unless the topics are related, but
- still keep them separate if a topic has special significance or requires special attention, and
- in case more than one topic, do number them: makes referencing them in replies easier
- write full sentences w/ all detail
- write “at 15:00 CET on Monday” not Monday afternoon
Coordination
Email can be a powerful tool to coordinate, when used well.
- describe concisely what you are coordinating
- list any points, options and open questions as numbers, so that they can be easily referenced in replies
- when smaller number of points you can give them names like “travel”, “accomodation”
- after a umber of replies, resummarise everying, keeping the thread
Status
Email is a powerful status update tool.
- easy threading
- easy to add/ remove recipients
Recommendations
- keep milestones, deadlines and key agreements as some sort of permanent paragraph
- people tend to get distracted and forget: repetitions remind and help remember, plus
- repetitions inspire thinking and people may notice issues and raise flags