Netiquette Core Basics For Email Maintenance - via Netiquette IQ

Mailbox maintenance is a form of proactive Netiquette. Since one of the major breaches of Netiquette is to have messages not responded to, here are some basic mailbox maintenance suggestions to reduce the risks of email loss, temporarily or permanently.

1. Be thorough in reading messages and their threads.
2. Deal with business email first, unless there are compelling reasons not to.
3. If a full answer will take longer than usual to reply to because of a need to get more information, send a note to explain this.
4. Maintain discipline and predictability in company or personal maintenance processes.
5. Check junk mail regularly for mistakenly filtered mail. Notify the sender that some emails may have been lost. One may want to ask the sender if there are outstanding messages that have not been replied to.
6. Keep all email lists up to date; delete old addresses. 
7. Keep dictionaries up to date, and allow proper names to be entered.

            8.   Empty deleted and junk files regularly.

            9.   Back up on a regular basis.

           10.  Remove all references such as “Sent from my… (smartphone brand name).”

           11.  Provide off-hour schedules.

    12.  Notify forty-eight hours ahead of time when performing tasks or email services.

    13.  Keep security policies.

    14.Check all email at least twice a day.

    15.  Mark or file critical messages that cannot be immediately replied to. 

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In addition to this blog, I have authored the premiere book on Netiquette, " Netiquette IQ - A Comprehensive Guide to Improve, Enhance and Add Power to Your Email". You can view my profile, reviews of the book and content excerpts at:

 www.amazon.com/author/paulbabicki

 If you would like to listen to experts in all aspects of Netiquette and communication, try my radio show on BlogtalkRadio  and an online newsletter via paper.li.I have established Netiquette discussion groups with Linkedin and  Yahoo.  I am also a member of the International Business Etiquette and Protocol Group and Minding Manners among others. I regularly consult for the Gerson Lehrman Group, a worldwide network of subject matter experts and I have been contributing to the blogs Everything Email and emailmonday . My work has appeared in numerous publications and I have presented to groups such as The Breakfast Club of NJ and  PSG of Mercer County, NJ.