Greetings,

Remember facsimile

documents (faxes) in the days before email? Sometimes you could receive dozens

of them a day and they all seemed so important – yet they all shared something

in common that helped us prioritize them – a cover sheet. On the cover sheet

there usually was an indicator to let the recipient know how to handle the document from

Urgent, FYI – No Action Required, For Review – Action required, Please Comment, to Please Reply.

Although faxes have become

scarce in this day and age, we can use these same indicators in our SUBJECT line

of our emails to make our recipients life a bit less stressful. When managing

an inbox that fills on a rapid basis, it would please the recipient to no end to

be able to glance at your subject heading and know at a glance how to handle

it. This goes double for someone who is managing their mail via a hand-held

device like a Blackberry. Try to incorporate this courtesy into your emailing

habits and make someone a little less stressed. If we are lucky, enough of us

will do it that it will become common practice and we will all work a little bit

more efficiently.

Lastly, over use of URGENT or PRIORITY will get you the opposite effect. Remember the little boy who cried wolf? Nuff said.