My Musings about Email Pt.2

This is the second of two posts that I've written to share my musings about email (Part 1 is linked here). While the majority of the first post centered around receiving email, this second post will focus on some tips and tricks for sending email. Here they are; take them for what they're worth, though, they're purely based off of my experiences with email.

Punctuation - use it sparingly; standard punctuation rules apply to email, too.

Fonts - the companies that provide email service, in my opinion, they have a pretty good idea of what they're doing. The standard fonts that they are using are probably a pretty safe bet.

Bullets, bold, and other text features - use these things with caution; if everything is in bold, you might as well have nothing in bold.

Long paragraphs - avoid them at all costs.

Multiple long paragraphs - definitely avoid them at all costs...if you want people to read what you have to say.

One action item per email - the likelihood that the action item is accomplished will significantly increase if it is limited to one item.

Not for dialogue - no one has time for this. Pick-up the phone - call or text - or find the person to have the conversation in real time.

Not for delivering bad news - again, pick-up the phone, go find the person, talk to them. No one wants to be delivered bad news, have questions that they want answered, but have to wait for a response. Furthermore, the tone in which an email is read is too open for interpretation; so be careful, be very careful. Plus, think about the time that we spend drafting emails that we are apprehensive about sending; think about how much time we'd save by opting for a conversation, think about how much time we'd have to do other worthwhile things.

Don't let your feelings dictate your response - receive an email that causes you anger and/or gives you feelings of anxiety, walk away from it. I caution you to hesitate with your response via your initial reaction right away. Give yourself time to reflect and make sure that your head is in a good place before responding. I can't tell you how many times I've drafted emails only to send them to myself as opposed to the intended audience. While my response might make me feel good, I know that in the long run it is unlikely to do the situation any good. Like I said in my previous post, I'd rather respond well than respond quickly.

“The email you think you need so desperately to respond to can wait.” 

- Ryan Holiday, Stillness is the Key, p.225

While this post may seem to be another post about email, it is really about mindfulness and self-care. Recently, I started reading Sakyong Mipham's book, Running with the Mind of Meditation. I was astounded by the coincidence of my finding the following quote while drafting this post.

"When we become overwhelmed by longer hours at work, more e-mails, or more parenting duties, we become more irritable, moody, or unhappy. It doesn't occur to us that our mind is out of shape. We put more stress on ourselves because we assume we should just be able to handle it all." p.24

Take care of yourself. Self care isn’t selfish. As educators, our job is to take care of others. But we can’t care for others, if we haven’t first cared for our self. We can’t pour from an empty cup. Self-care matters. You deserve it.