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Write this subject line with the swamped recipient in mind. For example, use “ACTION” “INFO” “DECISION” along with four or five words to summarize. Take a tip from the military: structure your subject lines as short, systematic, and clear.Set new, longer norms for non-urgent emails that work better for everyone. We often feel internal pressure to respond quickly to more emails, but what is truly needed versus expected? Liberate workplace expectations – agree to realistic appropriate response times for normal versus urgent emails collectively. This paradoxically only intensifies norms and expectations for quicker general response times. We all tend to respond to non-urgent emails too quickly.Focus on each email and force yourself to “only touch it once” (see below). Instead, block dedicated time in your schedule, to sit and “do” your email. The act of repeatedly “checking” your email is both mindless and unnecessary when you can’t actually act on the email.Etiquette and clarity is important and appreciated by others, and will ultimately affect the success of the message you are trying to convey. Remember that a workplace email is not the same genre as a text message to your friend.

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Collegial salutations, full sentences, and even basic punctuation are often missing from emails. Respect matters, especially in tone-deaf textual form.The subscriptions you retain can’t be “just-in-case” but must be “hell yeahs.” Don’t constantly scroll past or delete subscription emails ad infinium, instead: stop hording, and unsubscribe ruthlessly. From newsletters to journals to marketing. Over time, we subscribe to too many mailing lists.How then to break the email curse? To master email rather than email mastering you? From research, we propose R-E-D-E-M-P-T-I-O-N.

Most often – we ignore the brute reality that managing email properly is an important and learnable skill that if not done well, prevents you from focusing enough on your truly most important work. And there’s no bigger curse in academia than email.Ī necessary but incessant impediment to the work we really dream of – email is the “work means” that has become the “work end.” Whether you are more active in teaching, research, or administration, email consumes precious time and energy you never get back.Īnd how do we usually handle the email curse? We lament on insufficient time, hope other people will somehow send less, have anxiety build up as unanswered emails grow in our inbox, or damage our reputations by handling email poorly. But the only way to do this is to contain our other work.

Whether more research, more reading, more writing, or more work for students.

We all deserve more time to do the right academic work.

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