| Email Generation Rules
Before you send someone an email there is one simple question you should
ask yourself:
'Do you need a response from the recipients urgently?'
If the answer to this question is YES, then you should be trying to
contact them by telephone, pager or in person. For example if you wanted
someone to attend a meeting in 30 minutes time there is no guarantee
that they will read their incoming messages in that time and may
therefore miss the meeting. However, if the answer is NO, then email
could then be used as an option.
Once you have decided that email is the best option for relaying the
necessary information you should follow these guidelines:
High Priority Messages: A message sent as "high priority" requires
action by the end of the following day.
Time Specific Messages: Any message that is time specific must be
expired after the relevant date. We will look at how to set expiration
dates/times later is this section.
Routine Message Categories: All routine messages will be categorized
and either filtered to Personal Folders or, where appropriate, removed
from email to a bulletin board.
Follow Up Required: If a message requires reading or follow up the
recipient must be in the To: field of the message.
Information Only: If you put someone into the Cc: field of a message
you should not be expecting the recipient to read or action it. You have
sent it for their information only.
Message Content: Keep your message brief, only use attachments if the
data volume is significant and use the heading and the first 2 lines of
your message to express both the content and the expected action you are
requesting
Email Processing
Most of you will open Outlook when at the start of the day and leave
it open until you shutdown your computer at the end of the day. To work
more effectively with your e-mail program we suggest that you following
these simple guidelines wherever possible:
- Only check your Inbox 3 times a day - morning, after lunch and
prior to going home
- Your Inbox should be empty when you close out of Outlook at the end
of each day Filter your emails. We will look at how to do this later in
this section Use Tasks and Schedule instead of e-mail messages
When a message arrives in your Inbox, after you have read it, you
should do one of the following things:
- Delete it
- Schedule it
- Delegate it to someone else
- File it in personal folders or in the case of attachments, on your
hard drive
- Reply
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