We’ve all gotten them. We’ve all been guilty at one time or another of sending them. I’m talking about the “Dreaded Thread” — long email threads. Those long emails with tons of headers or emails that don’t make sense without reading every email in the thread. It’s time to break the habit, clean up those emails and help the reader understand the message you are sending.

The “Dreaded Threads” come in two basic categories:

• The Scroll-Down
• The Ongoing Conversation

The Scroll-Down: Headers Galore
For me, these emails come from just about anyone — family, friends, co-workers, colleagues and occasionally clients. The emails usually consist of a joke, chain letter, humorous video, virus alert or something about growing up in the 60’s, 70’s or 80’s. The email has been forwarded from one email group to another email group and so on. You know this as you scroll down through header after header trying to get to the content (which usually isn’t really that important anyway). It’s rude. It wastes time. How hard is it to delete the header of the previous email before you hit forward! I implore everyone to be kind and erase the headers. Let’s stop wasting each other’s time.

The Ongoing Conversation: Huh? What?
These are the emails that bother me the most! Most often they are work related and come from a client or co-worker. You receive an email, but it doesn’t quite make sense. Something is missing, a small detail, a comment about a project or perhaps it’s the key to solving the puzzle. Sometimes you understand what’s being discussed and other times you have no idea until you read the entire conversation. This is my biggest pet peeve of the “Dreaded Thread”. Reason being, it’s usually work related and it either wastes time or causes confusion. And that part that gets me the most, it’s usually a small detail. Why can’t the sender capture the important pieces, copy and paste them to the top of the email so I don’t have to waste valuable time reading ten emails to figure out the entire message. It’s just plain laziness on the sender’s part. I realize that we need to keep the thread together to track the conversation, but do I really need to read ten emails to understand one simple point! NO! Stop being lazy and take the time to collect the information and put it together in the top of the email! Please, help the reader and send a clear visual map of what’s being discussed.

In Summary
If you’re going to forward an email thread, do one of two things…erase all the headers and/or understand what you are about to send and summarize it for the recipient!

I ask you the reader to forward this message along, but be kind, erase the headers as it goes from person to person. Perhaps put your own little message, explaining the importance and relevancy of this story. Only you can prevent the “Dreaded Thread”!