Giving serious thought to how you use email threads and who you include can save you time, energy, and sometimes an entire deal.
July 31, 2024
By Rachel Smith
Before we dive into some helpful email tips, I feel like I need to come clean. I am confident in my email-writing abilities. I can craft cadences that quickly get to the point and might even make you laugh. I can confidently promise you that yes, you can delete “I hope you’re doing well” from all your emails and nobody will be offended. But if you’re hoping to learn how to organize your messages and declutter your inbox, I cannot help you.
Just hearing the words “inbox zero” makes me physically uncomfortable. Panic sets in, then defensiveness, and finally shame. Why? Because the image associated with this article showing 50,000 unread emails isn’t a stock photo. It’s a screenshot from my own phone, and not even one that I willingly captured. My son had my phone and thought it was funny that my email count had reached exactly 50,000. As soon as he captured the screenshot he said, “Wow, I got that just in time! It’s already 50,001!”
Clearly, I’m not proud of this, but I’m telling you about it for a reason. I want you to know this isn’t one of those blogs that promises amazing results if you can just do this one impossible thing. We’re not lifehacking. You don’t need to purchase an AI-powered email management tool. We’re just learning together about how we can be smarter when it comes to the endless email chains we’re all part of—because if you’re not careful, they can have negative, uncomfortable, and even business-harming consequences.
In Cal Newport’s A World Without Email, he explains that it’s not email itself that is so problematic. Rather, it’s the way of working that it introduced, which he calls the “hyperactive hive mind.” He defines this as a workflow centered around unstructured and unscheduled digital conversation. Newport is simply giving a name to the way we currently work—constantly responding to every email and Slack notification as they happen.
At first blush, it seems like constant communication and interaction would be helpful when working on shared problems and projects. Newport explains, however, that “the hyperactive hive mind workflow enabled by email—although natural—has turned out to be spectacularly ineffective. The explanation for this failure can be found in our psychology. Beyond the very small scale (say, two or three people), this style of unstructured collaboration simply doesn’t mesh well with the way the human brain has evolved to operate.”
A 2022 study published in Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes revealed that threaded emails are even worse. Using an email chain to come to a resolution is much more difficult and inefficient than meeting face to face. Even more surprising were the longer-term impacts of email-chain communication. Those who participated in the chains had poorer performances on subsequent tasks. They were 49% worse at logic problems, 20% worse at complex reasoning, and (my personal nightmare) caught 19% fewer grammatical errors. Email chains make you dumber.
Let’s be honest. There are a lot of things we do that we know make us slightly dumber, and we don’t stop doing them. Wine, Doritos, and the Real Housewives franchise aren’t going anywhere—point proven. But what if email chains are hurting your career? Or your company’s bottom line?
We’ve all had it happen to us at some point: You’re on an email chain with people on your team about one of your projects. You’re paying close attention, but at some point, the conversation transitions to another project you’re not involved in. You keep an eye on the conversation, but it’s trailing farther and farther away from anything having to do with you. You stop reading the chain, and so completely miss when a critical request regarding the original project is made of you.
How about this scenario? You’re in talks with a prospect and have sent them a proposal and a project timeline. Your prospect mentions someone on her team, Doug, who will need to see the timeline. You add Doug to the chain. Doug now has access to the timeline, but he also has access to the proposal and is not too happy when he learns your organization will be paid the equivalent of his yearly salary for the service you provide. He raises hell, and you lose the deal. While names and all identifying details have been changed, that’s a true story. Damn you, Doug!
Threaded emails aren’t going anywhere, and they have their place, but it behooves you to give more thought as to how you’re using them and when they need to end. (With Doug. They end with Doug.)
New topic = new chain
The subject of your email chain should describe the purpose of the exchange. Once the content of the emails shifts away from the initial subject, that warrants starting a new chain. Even if all the people on the chain are the same, start a new one. When you’re going through your emails looking for what a coworker said about client X, you’ll never find it if it’s in an email chain about client Y.
Who needs to see this?
Take some time to think about who truly needs to read the content of the email. What about the attachments? Not only does this help you avoid a whole Doug situation, but it’s also more respectful to your message recipients as they’re not wasting time reading something that doesn’t pertain to them.
Information sharing vs. decision making
Email chains can be great for sharing information. Research has proven that they aren’t good vehicles for coming to a consensus. If you’re aiming to reach a decision, set aside the email thread and schedule a face-to-face meeting.
Most of us have a complicated relationship with our inboxes. Whether you stay on top of your unread messages or have 52,475 (which is definitely a random number I just pulled out of thin air), there are some easy ways to avoid the more dangerous email gaffes and take back a bit of control. Plus, it’s a lot easier than going cold turkey on Doritos and wine.
If you’re interested in improving your email skills, we offer workshops as well as a self-paced online course. Reach out at mastery@maestrogroup.co to learn more. Except Doug.
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