"Let the Good Times Roll--by Guy Kawasaki: The Effective Emailer"

Let the Good Times Roll--by Guy Kawasaki: The Effective Emailer

"…12. Chill out. This is a rule that I've broken many times, and each time that I did, I regretted it. When someone writes you a pissy email, the irresistible temptation is to retaliate. (And this is for an inconsequential email message--no wonder countries go to war.) You will almost always make the situation worse. A good practice is to wait twenty-four hours before you respond. An even better practice is that you never say in email what you wouldn't say in person--this applies to both the sender and recipient, by the way. The best practice is to never answer and let the sender wonder if his email got caught in a spam filter or didn't even matter enough to merit a response. [Emphasis added] Take my advice and do as I say, not as I have done--or will do. :-) …"

LOL. Nice… And words to live by. I’m slowly learning the above email rule. In some cases I like following the advice in bold… ;)

An email flame war does no one any good and only makes you look childish (no matter how right you are or wrong/irritating the other person is). Rise above it.

If you have to reply, like Guy says, wait 24 hours and only reply to valid business points. If you disagree, then say so (I disagree on your point about XYZ…), but don’t bash, slam or try to “win”. You’ve already won by being the business focused and professional adult.

(via Kintan's – writing "WOW" emails)