I have pet peeves. I’m sure we all do. You know what’s the worst though? When you start actually doing those things that are your pet peeves! That’s usually a sign that you’re not devoting your time to doing things correctly, following through, or maintaining consistency.
For example… I hate a messy house. If I come home, and there are dishes on the counter (even clean dishes that could have just been dried and put away) that’s just no good. I can’t stand when the laundry goes unfolded or when I’ve had a task to do in my fixer/upper home that takes me forever to get to–even though it’s been on a list for several weeks. It’s draining when you have to organize and clean before you can actually start the work on a bigger, more important project.
In short, when things like that happen in any area of life I feel overwhelmed. Like at work…more specifically my e-mail inbox. If things aren’t neat and organized–whether it’s data or paper–time is wasted on looking for things and keeping track of items that need to get done. You’ll spend your time looking for an e-mail from someone… “Where is that e-mail? I know I saw it in here somewhere! What was the title again? Something like ‘RE: Re: Re: items needed by Thursday’” (On a side note: those e-mails are the worst and biggest time suck! The ones that refer back to some nebulous time that’s passed ages ago, but the subject line continues to thrive. Why is that?)
I have some e-mail pet peeves that I’ve recently caught myself committing. (I know!) And I thought today would be a good day to make a confession and return to my desk more resolute about sticking to the methods I know work. Maybe you’ll find that you could implement some of these rules for e-mail etiquette, and it will help you stay organized, on top of tasks and not lose critical information.
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