I'm going to run through this list quickly, so please try and keep up. In fact, why don't you print this list, frame it nicely, and hang it next to your computer.
1. Save the stationery for personal mail I know it's important to you that everyone knows you're creative, arty, and colorful. Your cubicle fairly screams kitsch; how could we not know? But we're at work here, and I don't want to have to hippity-hop through your "bunnies 'n love" stationery just to figure out what your message is.
2. The subject "RE: [blank]" means nothing to me In other words, fill out the Subject line. I get hundreds of e-mail messages each day, and when I get one without anything in the Subject line, I tend to skip over it. If the subject of the message wasn't important enough for the sender to fill out the Subject line, then it's not important to me. Be gone!
3. Discretion is the greater part of replying Imagine that you've received a piece of company-wide e-mail from someone in your very large organization. If you feel the need to respond to the sender, rest assured that every member of your very large organization does not want to have to read your reply, no matter how witty or urbane you may think it is. This goes the same for personal e-mail (especially if it's an Internet joke or rumor).For example, I'm fairly certain that Bill Gates doesn't need to know if I'll be attending the annual Microsoft picnic with one child or twelve. Not that he doesn't care, mind you; he just has other types of e-mail that may be more pressing. Shocking but true. So please, don't hit that Reply to All button.
Want more? Read my column Take your elbows off the table and mind your e-mail manners.
— Crabby