How I learnt to love my inefficient email workflow
I have an inefficient workflow for writing emails.
Now, this might seem odd. Surely writing an email is a simple as
- open email program/website
- click ’new email'
- write
- click send.
And for many emails, this is the case.
However, when I’m writing a serious message, such as a mass email to the church or a formal email, I process what I’ve written through Grammarly. Grammarly doesn’t have a plugin for the email app I use (Airmail) and it also doesn’t work with the web interface for my email provider. And so, the workflow for writing these more critical emails is:
- Compose a first draft of the email in a markdown editor. I use Typora on Mac and Drafts on iOS.
- (Mac) Copy the markdown (plain-text) from Typora and paste it into the Grammarly app.(iOS) Switch to the Grammarly keyboard.
- Within Grammarly, consider their corrections and proofread.
- (Mac) Copy the corrected and proof-read markdown formatted text out of Grammarly and paste into the markdown pane of Airmail. (iOS) Use the Drafts action to send the markdown formatted text to Airmail.
- Proof-read again.
- Repeat steps 2-5 until confident.
- Press send.
Now, this is a convoluted process. I’ve often wished either Airmail or my email’s web interface integrated with Grammarly. But just today I’ve realised this convoluted process is a great way to prevent emails being sent in the heat of the moment.
I’ve heard people suggest a way to wisely deal with angry emails is to write the email but leave the ’to’ box empty, then go for a walk before you press send. It’s great advice. I’ve also found it’s a good idea to wait before you press send on mass emails/email campaigns because I often remember that one more thing I needed to say just after I press send.
What I realised today is my convoluted Grammarly work-flow, which I was getting quite impatient with, has this very wise practice built-in. Yes, it means these emails take longer to write, and often don’t get sent in with the speed of a fiery email thread. But, it gives me time to think about my words. So I’ve come to love this little inefficiency.