More to Email than just beating snail mail!

Oh yeah I'm getting alot to think about ;) ... the key word here for me is THINK! I'm realising how much I do online everyday that I take for granted, that I don't THINK about and, to that end, email is just something I deal with every day that's a more rapid form of communication than snail mail.

Now I appreciate the applications that have allowed me to create folders and organise my email ins and outs into a logical and easily accessible filing system. I appreciate that I can email to one or many at the same time at my whim and how instantly I know from whom my correspondence has been received and what it's about BEFORE I get to the contents.

I operate my business and personal emails from the one spot. How convenient! I have four separate email addresses being delivered to me daily. So that I can sort them easily I have rules set up that instruct each mail received to pop into its appropriate folder on receipt. At a glance I can see any new mail to any of the four addresses and keep everything separate.

Immediately after reading an email and taking action I deliver it to an appropriate sub-folder for safe keeping. I do the same with my Sent mails, that way I can quickly and efficiently find any correspondence at a later date. Within folders I may have even more sub-sub folders!

On receipt of an email, the Header tells me exactly who has sent it. I may know them I may not. I look at domains for a clue to origin if the email is from someone I don't know personally or an organisation I'm not familiar with and often I'll google the domain to discover more about the organisation before deciding whether to respond and/or what to respond.

Often the subject is unhelpful in providing clues to the body of the message so I tend to skim over the subject and get straight to the message. Again, if it's an unsolicited email I'll check out the sig and do a bit more googling before replying.

I have a spam mail folder which I've set up to immediately deposit anything that might appear dodgy. I always check it because many times a perfectly legitimate email has ended up relegated to the spam folder. Each day, sometimes several times a day, I send the spam items to delete and then delete the lot so that I can be sure I'm doing daily housecleaning of my inbox - I don't like clutter ;)

I'll tend to use cc when someone needs to be copied in or included in a discussion. If an email arrives to me with cc to someone else I always determine whether or not the cc recipients need to be included in my reply and if not I reply only to the sender. If I receive a chain mail all-inclusive thing from a friend I always remove all the prior forwards before forwarding. I do that for a couple of reasons - 1) I find it really irritating to receive a great long chain mail with a thousand and one addresses on it and 2) I believe by removing the 'priors' I'm ensuring that the person or people to whom I'm forwarding the email are not privvy to others' addresses and only need to see that it's me who is forwarding it to them.

bcc is tricky. I've only ever used it a couple of times because generally all my correspondence, even work-related, is transparent and doesn't require a 'hidden' third-party recipient to be included. I'm not sure where I stand on the whole bcc thing and since I don't really use it I had forgotten about it - which does leave me wondering: How many emails have I received and/or replied to all where there is a bcc?? It's a bit sneaky isn't it? More reason to be absolutely certain your email correspondences are pleasant.

I'm always thinking before I email because I'm aware that although it's an electronic form of communication it is a written communication therefore it's prudent to check, double-check and re-read before hitting send to be certain you haven't said anything that could potentially come back to haunt you!

Thank you email - as of today you are officially appreciated beyond just being considered a fast method of written communication. :)