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VA Healthcare Network Upstate New York - VISN 2
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Tips for Managing
E-Mail |
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- Set an example. Be brief. Don't Reply To All unnecessarily. Use bullet points. Don't respond unless you need to. Don't put text into an attachment that readers could scan in the main e-mail message.
- Schedule e-mail sessions. Everybody has their peaks and valleys of energy throughout the day. Align your peaks with the work you need to get done, align e-mail with the valleys. Or vice versa, depending on your preference.
- Activate Stealth Mode. Outlook gives you options to play a sound or display a pop-up window telling you when new mail has arrived. If you're on an important project and find it hard to ignore these interruptions, turn them off! Go to Tools > Options... > E-mail Options > Advanced E-mail Options. You can deactivate the pop-up window in E-mail Options, the sound in Advanced.
- Out of Office Assistant. Use this command on the Tools menu to let people know when you'll be away. It saves a lot of frustration for others expecting your response.
- Take it from the top. In any large group discussion, invariably someone joins the message late and replies to one of the early responses, without reading or considering all the replies sent since. Point: If you have several messages to catch up on, start on the most recent ones first.
- Dial direct. Remember how refreshing it used to be to pick up the phone, or walk down the hall to ask a question, or chat in the Canteen? It still is.
- Is e-mail the right venue? Realize e-mail is not always the best forum: all players may not be available during a discussion or decisions online, meaning can be misunderstood, discussion threads can spin off on a tangent. Alternatives include VANTS calls, videoconferencing, or face to face meetings.
The 10 Commandments. The March 2001 Fast Company magazine features an excellent sidebar on the 10 Commandments of E-Mail.* In the spirit of 10th Commandment (tell your e-mail recipient where the important information is), head straight to the end of this web page to read their ten tips.
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| * Links will take you outside of the Department of Veterans Affairs Web site. VA does not endorse and is not responsible for the content of the linked web sites. The link will open in a new window. |
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| Reviewed/Updated Date:
February 7, 2007
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