Communication fails easily

Writing emails is easy. It doesn’t take much time. There shouldn’t be anything new about emails, so
why even bother writing about them?
That’s right. It’s not a new thing. Still everyone can get better in communicating by email.

Recently I have been thinking a lot about writing emails. Firstly, it’s difficult to figure out the perfect
subject line and summarize the nature of your email in as few words as possible. Secondly, it can be
hard to make yourself understood correctly.
Emails are challenging:

1. Some messages are too long. It feels like the writer doesn’t get to the point, or you have to figure out the important information yourself.
2. Messages can also be too short. Additional questions are needed to figure out what the sender wants to say.
3. Emails can be sent at the wrong time. The right timing can be very important. It might not be the best idea to send emails when people are off duty. If there is no hurry to send and email, it can be more effective to send it a bit later.
4. Usually emails need some follow up.
5. Sometimes face-to-face communication would be more effective. It’s always not possible, when people are located in different places.

The interesting thing is, that emails can be easily misunderstood. Instead of sending an email too soon,
it could be important to read it one more time.

Usually it’s nobody’s intention to write a rude email. It can be avoided by trying to think about how the
receiver will understand the message. The tone in emails can be negative or commanding unintentio- nally. Human communication can fail.

The observation about how easily communication fails, was made by Professor Osmo Antero Wiio
in 1978. The fundamental Wiio's law states that "Communication usually fails, except by accident".
According to Wiio, a message, that can be interpreted in several ways, will be interpreted in a manner that
maximizes the damage.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiio%27s_laws

I think Wiio is quite right. What would he have said about email communication? That's even harder
other forms of communication. Emails shouldn’t be the only way we communicate. Real conversations
are important.

“Communication is a skill that you can learn. It’s like riding a bicycle or typing. If you’re willing to work at it, you can rapidly improve the quality of every part of your life.”

— Brian Tracy

The things you don't want to do

It’s fun to make new plans. In the beginning of the new year many of us feel optimistic and full of

energy. It feels like anything can be done. Then the reality comes in. It doesn’t feel so easy to make

the positive changes you have planned.

The mornings didn’t suddenly turn easier this year, and I wasn’t feeling more energetic in the

evenings than last year. Still I have tackled the difficult things and my never ending to do list.

There are things you could just leave them as they are. Who cares about emails? You read them and they stay nicely in the inbox. They will never quit to come. It’s the same with cleaning the house. The cleaning is never ending. But stopping cleaning would be crazy. Who wants to clean a house, that hasn’t been cleaned in a long time? I try to remind myself of being consistent.

My organized year started with going through my emails, pressing the delete key and cleaning the house. It’s amazing how many useless emails you can save. The question is, why they are saved and not deleted, because you don’t need them. Well, the answer is simple: you might need the information some day. Just might.

One interesting thing is the notifications different programs send to you. For example I got a notification last year from my Dropbox-account. It said something like this: your Dropbox-account is decreasing in October on a specific date. And it meant, that the account should be checked so that no photos would disappear. I did it, in the last minute.

The solution to the problem could be this:

• going through emails on a regular basis
• deleting the useless ones
• checking trash also
• deleting junk mail
• archiving emails and creating folders
• reading the notifications from different programs (Dropbox for example) 

Another useful thing, that I started doing, is keeping my calendar up to date. When I know about an event, I put it in my calendar. This sounds very simple too, but it isn’t. Because it’s easy to forget it. It has to do with the emails. You get an email, and there is something important, and you think about adding it to your calendar later. Later. Then you forget about it. And of course you can’t find it anymore, because the inbox is full with emails.

The lesson learned:

• add important events to your calendar as soon as possible
• also add important information about the events
• add reminders about things you have to do

I also did a weekly cleaning schedule for the house.

“It’s not what we do once in a while that shapes our lives. It’s what we do consistently.”-Tony Robbins