Communicating with Very Busy People: Overcome Email Overload

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Communicating with Very Busy PeopleOvercome
Email Overload

• Irene Tobis Ph.D.
• Guest Lecture CS250 Loyola University Chicago
• October 18, 2006

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VOLUME of email

• In many business/professional settings
• 2-4 hours per day spent in email
  correspondence is not unusual
• 30-70 incoming email messages per day need
  response
• email has become primary means of
  communication,
• replacing paper documents, phone calls, and
  meetings
• volume and complexity increase with managerial
  responsibility

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Types of CORRESPONDENTS

• internal vs. external
• team/workgroup vs. other departments vs
  company-wide
• task-oriented vs. informational
• push (initiative, marketing) vs. pull
  (responding to requests)

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PURPOSE of email

• news (announcements)
• socializing, keeping up with friends,
  colleagues
• marketing
• task management
• action request ? to-do item
• tracking task/project status
• documentation (archive)

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Pro/con of email

• Advantages fall to the sender
• speed
• low cost, especially to multiple recipients
• written record (archive)
• Disadvantages fall to the recipient
• glut of messages, overload, overwhelm

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Overcoming Email Overload

• We can overcome email overload in the workplace
  by improving
• tools (email software, plus tools better
  suited for purposes)
• training on available tools
• company policies practices
• writing skills

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Recipient needs to figure out
What IS this about? sender subject
What to I need to do action - to do item/list
about this? (next step, of
steps) When? date/time - calendar
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Your goal in writing
Your goal Increase the speed with which
your recipient can answer those 3 questions.
Benefits to you Recipient will give you
responses you need. Increased
productivity.
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What IS this email about?

• Things you can do to help your recipient
  understand your email
• ORIENT your reader with adequate CONTEXT
• beware of placeholders, use concrete, specific
  words
• convey (in text instead of verbally) emotional
  TONE, uncertainty
• avoid anger and/or arguments

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What IS this email about?

• ORIENT your reader with adequate CONTEXT
• Example Bears and Bulls Face Similar Challenges
• - business pages?
• - sports section?
• - nature magazine?
• Context provided by face-to-face conversation is
  missing in email.
• Assume your reader has long since forgotten the
  thread of conversation.

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What IS this email about?

• ORIENT your reader to WHO YOU ARE (Sender,
  Subject body)
• If the recipient doesnt know you (or might have
  forgotten you),
• - give them a hint that youre not SPAM!
• - tell them WHO YOU ARE in the first line or
  two.
• - remind them WHO YOU ARE in signature line.

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What IS this email about?

• ORIENT your reader with adequate CONTEXT (in
  Subject line)
• Subject GENERAL topic, plus more specific topic
• Subject CS250
• Subject Information about Emails
• Subject CS250 my daily email - volume,
  correspondents, purposes

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What IS this email about?

• ORIENT your reader with adequate CONTEXT (in
  body text)
• In first line, summarize. (Repeat the subject
  line in the body text.)
• (Busy attention spans are VERY short.)
• TELL your recipient what your email is
  generally about
• In response to your three questions,
• This is the information about my e-mail you
  requested.
• My email usage - to help you prepare your
  CS250 lecture on Wed 10/18/06

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What IS this email about?

• BEWARE of PLACEHOLDERS (referring to . . . )
• Use concrete, specific words and/or QUOTE
  your reference.
• I talked to them about it and they want to see
  the other one before they make up their minds.
• Did your client decide to go with the theme we
  suggested or did they decide to wait for Eves?
• I talked to my client, John Bernes of Whoopa,
  Inc., and they want to see Eves suggestion
  before they make up their minds on the theme for
  the New Years Gala.

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What IS this email about?

• BEWARE of PRONOUNS (he, she, they, them, you).
  
• Use concrete, specific words.
• He said that he would give me a hour if you would
  lend him the keys. Could you get the keys to him
  by Saturday?
• Ezra said that he would give me a tour if you
  would lend him the keys. Could you get the keys
  to Ezra by Saturday?

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What IS this email about?

• BEWARE of concept holder words (information,
  request, data, mail
• assignment, idea, suggestion, etc.). Use
  concrete, specific words.
• There has been a delay in getting you the
  information you requested. We expect to send it
  to you by the end of the week.
• There has been a delay in getting you the contour
  maps of the Wisconsin driftless zones you
  requested. We expect to send them to you by the
  end of the week, Friday 10/20/06.

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What IS this email about?

• BEWARE relative references to PLACE (here,
  there) and TIME
• yesterday, today, next Wednesday), which are
  imprecise or
• meaningless in cyberspace.
• Can you come here for an informational meeting
  next Monday at 8?
• Can you come to a meeting of the Loyola Futurists
  Club next Tuesday, 19 Jan 2038 at 8 PM? Ezra P.
  Snodwhistle will give a report on last months
  meeting (5 Dec 2037) with the Time Warp
  Superintendent. The meeting will be in Room 22 at
  Damen Hall at LUCs Lakeshore Campus.

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What IS this email about?

• DO convey emotional tone, uncertainty
• Email lacks facial expression body language,
  so make up for it
• - Use emphasis where youd hear it if you
  spoke it.
• I said that I would go to the store
  tomorrow.
• - For pauses, use - spacing
• - tabs
• - carriage returns.
• - Hmm. Um . . Uh . . To express difficulty
  answering.
• - Use questions marks if youre not ?sure (?).
• Paper is more often used for persuasion, final
  pronouncements.
• Email is more often used for collaboration,
  consensus-building.

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What IS this email about?

• avoid anger and/or arguments in email.
• flame wars happen more in email than anywhere
  else.
• - no inflection, facial expression, body
  language
• - words are easily misinterpreted
• - no cooling off period
• - many participants can get called into the
  battle
• If you or your recipient appears upset, shift
  to phone or in-person!

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What do I need to do about this?

• Explicitly request ACTION you want
• Example
• I was thinking about the report covers. Blue
  might be better than yellow.
• - Am I requesting/ordering you to change the
  color of the report cover?
• - Am I expressing an opinion that you can ignore
  if you choose?
• - Do I know a fact that makes blue a better
  choice than yellow?
• - Do I want your opinion on the color?
• - Do I want to know if theres a penalty for
  changing the color?
• In spoken conversation, context usually makes it
  clear if youre expressing a desire, and opinion,
  a fact, a request/order, or a question. In email,
  its is not as clear.

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What do I need to do about this?

• Explicitly request ACTION you want
• Example
• I was thinking about the report covers. Blue
  might be better than yellow.
• Would there be any problem with changing the
  cover color?
• Is blue more expensive?
• Would changing the color delay production?
• Would blue clash with the artwork, in your
  designers opinion?
• Please find out the answers to these questions
  and get back to me.

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What do I need to do about this?

• Explicitly request NO action, if no action is
  needed or wanted.
• Example (body)
• I was thinking about the report covers. Blue
  might be better than yellow. Just wanted to let
  you know I asked Jason to check into this for the
  next production run.
• No Response Needed (NRN)
• Example (Subject line)
• Subject Report covers - color change for next
  run? - No Response Needed

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What do I need to do about this?

• Explicitly request ACTION you want (in Subject
  line)
• Subject CS250 My email uses
• Subject CS250 My email uses 2 ?s (formality,
  conciseness) for class 10/18

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What do I need to do about this?

• Make your request for action EASY to complete (in
  body)
• - General Rule Limit yourself to ONE
  issue/request per message.
• - If your request has several pieces, LIST them
  (avoid thick paragraphs).
• - Make info they need to complete your request
  easy to find.
• Link to a website is usually easier than an
  attachment.
• - Avoid extraneous info (clutter), especially
  after your request.
• In person, its polite (and efficient!) to handle
  several issues at once. In email, one at a time
  is easier on your recipient.

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What do I need to do about this?

• Explicitly request ACTION you want (in body)
• As far as things to cover, in general, it would
  be helpful to address different ways to approach
  specific people. For example a supervisor,
  someone you are corresponding with for the first
  time. Maybe cover when it's OK to be formal
  versus informal. Also, different strategies to
  keep our emails concise and to the point in order
  to make emails easier to read for busy people.
  For example, emailing in different environments.

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When?

• Let your recipient know by WHEN you need action
  (in Subject line and body)
• - Not always necessary, but often remarkably
  helpful (often overlooked)
• - helps recipient schedule his/her work
  efficiently
• - helps YOU know when to expect their response,
  
• - helps you give them time to work, then
  follow-up in timely manner.
• - If this seems bossy, let recipient know
  advantage of getting by that date
• Subject General orientation specific topic
  REQUEST ACTION - by 10/30?

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Opening and Closing

• Open the body with the recipients name (unless
  VERY informal, with peers).
• - helps recipient know theyre at the top of the
  email
• - conveys respect
• - clues in the recipient that this email is
  intended for THEM specifically.
• REPLY to an email ABOVE quoted text, unless you
  specifically indicate that your responses are
  interspersed in quoted text. Limit length to one
  screen full?
• Close with signature
• - helps recipient know theyre at the end of the
  email
• - conveys your openness to other forms of
  contact (phone, IM)
• - conveys status (importance), self-respect,
  self-promotion

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An easy-to-read email

• Hi Irene,
• This is the information about my e-mail you
  requested.
• Volume I receive approximately 25 e-mails per
  day. Most of it, about half, is spam. Most of
  the spam is caught by Gmail and put in the
  default "Spam" folder. Two or three spam e-mail
  will usually make it to my "Inbox" folder. These
  are usually easily identified and trashed. The
  remaining e-mail, about ten, falls under one of
  four categories school, family, newsletter, or
  notification.
• Correspondents As I said before, useful e-mails
  fall under one of four categories. Family e-mail
  will usually come from my parents, sister, or
  grandfather. School e-mail comes from professors
  or school-wide notifications. Newsletters are
  from stores or companies of which I wish to be
  informed about. Notifications inform me when
  things have changed or need my attention.
• Purposes Family e-mails keep me update on
  family matters back home. School e-mail informs
  me of my grades and school events. Newsletters
  tell me of new sales or products. Notifications
  can range from airline ticket changes to new
  messages on a social network site ( i.e.
  MySpace).
• I hope this was helpful to you.
• Sincerely,
• Robbie McMahon
• Major Computer Science
• Year Junior, Undergrad
• Hometown Long Beach, CA

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An hard-to-read email

• Basically the use of emails is a major use in
  someones everyday life. The amounts of emails
  sent a day are huge amounts of data traveling
  across the world. Personally I keep track of
  three email accounts a day. Which in a day I
  receive about thirty to forty emails.
• People that I communicate with over emails
  are more than just friends. I communicate with my
  co-workers being that I work in a technical
  environment our sole source of communication is
  email. I also correspond to friends and family.
  My friends vary from high school friends to
  colleagues. This however may be not on a daily
  basis but I surely keep up with my emails.
  Lastly I correspond to my fellow brother from the
  fraternity I belong to. I can truly say that
  everyday I receive about 10 emails from brothers
  across the country in referral to various
  fraternal topics.
• The involvement of email communicate has
  greatly impact the lives of many people across
  the world. Many may have different reasons for
  their email account but whatever the reason may
  be, it may be their source of communication. My
  personal experience about email has had a
  positive impact on me. Especially now that
  phones are equipped with web browsing
  capabilities I can communicate with peers in
  seconds.
• ---
• Signature Here

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General tips for considerate email

• - ALWAYS be kind, polite and respectful to
  everyone you communicate with.
• - Send less email. (Save up your thanks!)
• - Make your subject lines longer (clearer) and
  your body text shorter (clearer).
• - Stick to business.
• - Make your emails easy on the eyes - and on the
  brain!
• - skip lines between paragraphs
• - make lists, bulleted points, rather than
  paragraphs
• - spell check before sending
• - Encourage others to write better email,
  especially to very busy people