Email Tip That Will Save Your Bacon

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Have you hit 'reply all' by mistake? Sent a nasty response and then regretted it? Or simply sent a message and then remembered some piece of information or a question you left out?

(The last one happens to me several times a day!)

How do I avoid sending multiple emails on the same topic when that happens? Easy: I've configured my email to send and receive every five minutes.

That's five minutes to realize I might have hit 'reply all.' Or a five-minute cooling down period. (Some folks might need 10 minute intervals!) And it's five minutes for 'oh yeah, I needed to ask about XYZ too.'

How many of your emails need to be sent immediately? I'll bet they're the exception and not the rule. Therefore, it's no big deal to manually hit 'Send/Receive' in Microsoft Outlook from time to time when you need to send a message right away.

Change your email options in Outlook by clicking the 'Tools' menu. Select 'Options' and then click the 'Mail Setup' tab. You'll have to unclick the 'Send immediately when connected' button--that's actually the default setting for Outlook. Then click the 'Send/Receive' button to the right to specify how frequently you want your email sent.

I've been doing this for years and just told a few of my colleagues who loved the idea. I thought I'd share it here, because in my opinion, it's a 'best practice' when it comes to email. Do you have any tips for email communication to share?

Avoiding Embarassing Email SNAFUS

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At some time, it happens to everyone. You hit 'reply all.' I know this to be true because today it happened to my mother.

Known for her acidic sense of humor and sharp tongue (at least that's how's she's known within the family), I can only imagine the social carnage resulting from her error.

Let me share a tip for anyone who wants to avoid shooting themselves in the foot via email: Set up your email with a 10 minute delay. If you've got an urgent email to send, just manually hit send/receive so it leaves your outbox immediately. But you will -- as I have -- save yourself grief and regret with this simple 10 minute rule.

And since it won't save you if you accidentally hit 'reply all,' learn to check the To field before hitting send--particularly if you've written something you wouldn't want widely circulated. (And if it's a business communication that's particularly sensitive, mark it Confidential too.)

But another benefit of the 10 minute delay is that you'll often remember a point you forgot to make so you now have time to go back and add it in. In today's world of instant communication, building in a little time for reflection is a best practice.