Add the recipient last when writing important emails

It’s a short blog post today but an important one I think. Especially to small business owners or those like me who work all kinds of hours in all kinds of places. Today it’s about protecting yourself from distraction, working while tired or making a rookie error. Something I did last week that lost me a lucrative contract.

My new rule is, ‘Only add the email recipient when you’re finished with the email’.

We usually add the recipient first or it is added for us when we hit reply. If it’s a particularly important email, scratch that and learn to add it last. That way, if you get distracted or accidentally send the email before it’s ready, it won’t send.

I was replying to a quote request last week and didn’t notice that I had written ‘shit’ instead of ‘shut’ several times throughout the mail. Even though I re-read it to make sure I had covered every point, I didn’t notice what is an obvious error. I sent the email in blissful ignorance. When the prospect didn’t reply, I checked what I had said and then noticed my mistake.

Given that I was quoting for some editing, that wasn’t a great mistake to make!

Fortunately it is rare that this kind of thing slips by me but when it does, it is always at the worst possible time.

If you’re a Gmail user, there is the email delay option. You can do something similar in Outlook if you prefer but if you’re comfortable with how things are, making this small change could save you a very red face and prevent you from losing a client like it did me!