Never let an email go out of your inbox with this subject line. Instead, answer the question in the subject line.
Why? Why bother being persnickety about such a trivial thing?
Maybe it’s not so trivial. The subject line is of each email you send is your headline. Can you imagine if the NY Post’s headline today had been “Re: IMF” (instead of “French Whine” in reference to Dominique Strauss-Kahn not being given any special treatment by the NYPD.) Re:IMF doesn’t sell newspapers, and it doesn’t help your email get to the top of the pile.
The subject of your email is a trigger for people to read your note (or not), to read it immediately (or not). Tweaking this is one more way to avoid letting your message get lost in the shuffle.
A guy I know puts my name in the subject line of every email he sends to me. It’s pretty weird, pretty far outside of regular email norms, but I absolutely know when an email is just to me and when it’s to a group, and it makes a difference in how I respond.
So, for kicks, a list of norm-breaking email suggestions:
- If you are the author of an email, make the subject Tweetable. (NOT “Question” but instead “Should we move the launch date up a week?”). Flex those 140-character-or-less authoring muscles for something more useful.
- Have as few people as possible receive every email
- Especially when you ignore #2, establish that you want replies from people in the To: line. Cc: means “I’m just letting you know.”
- If someone has written a vague, general email subject line, change it. Reply to “Question” with “Moving up launch date [Re: Question]” This way the email is still searchable under the original subject plus it’s more clear to everyone what’s going on
- When an email thread veers off to a totally different topic, start a new thread or change the subject line. Having a conversation about a potential promotion in a thread whose subject is “Re:Staff Retreat” is just plain inefficient.
- If threads are getting really long, pick up the phone instead (yes, that counts as an email tip)
- If a conversation has become irrelevant to some people, drop them off
- If #7 makes you/them uncomfortable, move the people who are being dropped off to Bcc: and say in the note: “I’m moving Pankaj and Sarah to Bcc: and the rest of us will continue the thread.”
- Make your emails shorter
- Write each email as if the time of each of the person reading it is valuable – because it is, even if being loose with these sorts of things feels like a hassle to you.
I wish all the popular email programs made it a default to have the cursor jump to the subject line when you hit “Reply.” In the meantime, my answer to “Re: Question” is “No!”
I can’t wait to start using some of these tips myself.
Changing the subject line seems like such a trivial thing to do, but the effect must be significant, as the subject line is the very first (or second, after “sender”) thing we see when we check our email.
Makes you wonder where else you could make such small changes to nudge the status quo. Maybe “hacking” phone calls and even text messages? Blog comments?
Sasha,
This is a useful and relevant set of techniques. I’ll keep these things in mind.
I would also add that responding to emails in a timely fashion, rather than delaying, is very useful to the receiver.
Great tips! Proving once again that “common sense ain’t so common”.
Here’s my favorite e-mail tip: one subject per e-mail, with a meaningful Subject Line.
One caveat: if you need to send someone multiple e-mails in rapid succession, you might want to check with them first. They might prefer having multiple subjects in one e-mail.