Use Email the Way You Want Everybody to Use It

While the answer to the perennial question "What should I do?" probably is itself a question — "What do you want to do?" —, it makes sense to square your intentions with everybody else's plans. If what you want everybody else can want, too, all is fine.

Use Email the Way You Want Everybody to Use It

Whenever you are not sure how to react to an offensive email, whether your message will be misunderstood, whether you should send that attachment, whenever you are not sure what to do with or in email,

• remember the human being (just like you) at the other end reading your email

and reacting to it with their feelings.

Would You Say the Same Face to Face?

Whatever you are about to write, would you say it in their face? Would you want them to say it in your face? If everybody forwarded every attachment (without deleting all the email addresses in the Cc: line), would that work?

Remember that everything you do not only shows but is what you want all of humankind to be. Email is a part of what humans do, too.

• Use email the way you want (and can reasonably want) everybody to use it.