How Not to Make Me Rage-Close My Inbox

Published 15.05.2025 - Michael A.Di Palma 

If you’ve emailed me in the past and never got a response… well, this might be why.

It’s not personal. It’s just that somewhere around the 14th “see below,” my will to live quietly packed its bags and left.

Let’s talk about emails—the kind that make you want to delete your entire account, move to a cabin in the woods, and communicate exclusively via smoke signals.

You know the ones.

 The 27-person chain where someone writes, “See thread below” and now I’m expected to scroll through seven months of email archaeology to figure out who said what, when, and why I’ve been dragged into it.

Here’s the thing: Email is not that hard. But people make it harder than it needs to be. So, in the spirit of preserving sanity (mine, mostly), here are my rules for not being that person.

• Subject lines are not optional.
  If it’s not clear what the email is about from the subject, it’s going to my “deal with never” folder.

• If I don’t get the point in the first two lines?
  I stop reading. I’m not Indiana Jones, and I didn’t sign up to decode the secrets of the Inbox Swamp.

• Adding someone to the thread? Great.
  Now summarise the bloody thing for them. Don’t just drop them into chaos. They’re not being recruited into a cult.

Here’s how I email (and how I wish others would too):

• Clear subject line. Always.

• Friendly greeting + 2-line summary at the top.

• Use @mentions in the body if it helps direct traffic.

• Copy/paste important past messages into the body (highlighted!) so no one has to go on an epic scroll quest. You're welcome.

In short: I email like a decent human.

You should too.

Because if I get one more “Please see below” with no context, I swear I’m going to start faxing people just out of spite.