Email is an invaluable tool for business communication, but it can also be a significant source of distraction and disruption. The arrival of an email in our inbox, whether accompanied by a sound alert or not, is a form of noise. It can easily divert your attention from your current task and interrupt your focus, shifting you from a state of flow to a state of disruption. This requires you to reorient your focus back to the task at hand once the email has been dealt with.
Managing client expectations
In our world of instant messaging, managing client expectations is crucial for a solicitor’s file management and mental health. Consider outlining in your terms of engagement, with the client’s agreement, the timeframes for responding to communications. If you respond to emails after hours, you are setting an expectation that you may always be available after hours. Remember to make use of the delay send feature to allow you to work after hours if necessary, but schedule the email to be sent during business hours. The “out of office” feature is also invaluable in communicating availability, responsiveness or alternative contacts to a query.
Managing your inbox
To effectively manage your inbox, you may need to consider some controls:
Have you subscribed to junk emails?
- Do these emails need to be in your work inbox?
- Could you unsubscribe from these distribution lists?
- Could you set up another account to periodically check these emails?
Are you receiving informational emails?
- Are they necessary?
- Could these emails be moved to a separate folder to be read once a week or once a month?
If you find yourself being cc’d on all emails being sent from your office, consider integrating a legal practice management system that stores emails against a client’s matter. Internal conversations can often be better handled in collaboration tools.
Communications
Our professional duty of competence, courtesy, and diligence extends to email.[1] Before sending an email, consider the following:
- Who are you sending this email to? It is easy to send to the incorrect person when there is an auto-populate function from your contacts. Nb: Guidance Statement No. 18 Inadvertent disclosure
- Why are you sending this email?
- What are you hoping to achieve by sending this email?
- What are you communicating in this email?
- Is your message clear and concise?
- Are you just creating noise for the recipient? If the recipient is currently on leave, unless urgent, consider scheduling your email to be sent after they return from leave.
- Use accurate subject headings as that aids readability.
- Check you have attached all necessary (and correct) documents to the email.
Consider the recipient of your email. Be purposeful and considerate when addressing emails:
- Do all recipients need to receive your email, or could they be cc’d as an alternate?
- Do they need to receive ‘Reply All’ responses? Perhaps a Bcc might be sufficient.
- Does your legal practice management system file emails in a central file repository? If so, there may be no need to cc or bcc internal recipients at all.
The ‘To’ field is for the key people in the conversation; the ‘Cc’ field is for additional people who might be looped into the communication; the ‘Bcc’ field is for those you wish to keep informed of the matter without the intended recipient knowing. The ‘Reply All’ function should be used sparingly. Do all parties to the conversation need to know your response, or just the sender? For more information on the use of Cc or Bcc see: To Cc or Bcc, that is the question – email, etiquette and ethics
Practitioners are also referred to: Guidance Statement No. 31 Courtesy in communications
Email management is a crucial aspect of legal practice. By implementing effective strategies and maintaining courtesy in their communications, practitioners can hope to reduce the number of emails in their inboxes and enhance their productivity.
[1] Queensland Law Society, Australian Solicitors Conduct Rules (at 1 June 2012) r 4.