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Friday, 20 July 2018

New email charter

The original email charter sets out 10 rules aimed at saving us all from drowning in emails:

  1. Respect recipient's time (ie don't send an email unless you absolutely have to).
  2. Don't treat email brevity as rudeness.
  3. Keep emails as clear as possible.
  4. Keep questions specific.
  5. Don't add unnecessary cc's.
  6. Don't let threads get too long.
  7. Avoid unnecessary attachments.
  8. Restrict short messages to the subject line.
  9. Don't send contentless responses
  10. Disconnect: don't spend so much time on email.
Much as I appreciate this charter and its attempts to consciously steer our norms regarding email, i don't think it goes far enough.