Respecting other people's time

Have you ever received an email with only part of a message and ended up having to reply asking for more detail? Well, I have been getting a lot of these types of messages in the last little while and it really bothers me.

If you are sending someone an email to ask a question or to ask for something be sure that you really do ask for what you are looking for instead of just being unclear. The reason I am saying this is it wastes a lot of time to have to continually email back and forth getting clarification.

Another part of emailing is if you are looking for a number of different things try and put them all in one email instead of an email every few minutes. If you are working on a few things try and delay sending the first email for a few minutes to see if you need anything else. The person that is receiving all these emails is continually being interrupted if they are notified of all messages that are received. The person you are sending to may change their notification so that they don't get the notification and in an emergency will miss something.

It is important when you send emails you make sure you give all the information that is necessary for the individual receiving the email to act quickly and effectively on it. The information you are looking for may be easy to send if the person understands what you are looking for and doesn't have to guess at some of it.

Sending numerous emails to one person is like picking up the phone and calling them with every little question instead of thinking things through and then making one contact. The person that is receiving this type of message would really appreciate the one message instead of tons of little messages.

Remember email is great in some ways but you also have to remember that you could be interfering with what someone is working on if you continually email them. They may be working on something for you and it will take them a lot longer to get you the stuff if you don't respect their time.