Quick Tip on Emailing

While visiting the water cooler this morning, I picked up a good tip from my fellow IT colleagues - Ed and Nelson. If you work in the same facility as your IT team, be sure to pick their brains once in a while – they can teach you a lot.

The tip: Do ever notice that when you begin to type the name of the recipient in an email, your email application will fill out the rest of the information? I know this applies to Microsoft Outlook 2003 and Gmail. Outlook calls this tool AutoComplete. In times of high stress, trying to meet deadlines, or mass email distribution – this tool can fool you and you can wind up sending your intended email message to a different recipient. Don't be fooled by this tool. Always double check and make sure the recipient is correct.

Sending a wrong email can be unforgiving. You'll be lucky to get an undeliverable message (which means the person may have changed their email), but do you want your emails read by the wrong recipient? Do you want information about your clients or your company leaked to the wrong person? What if you accidentally sent it to the wrong blogger? It's a simple mistake that can turn into a crisis, so all you have to do to prevent it is to double check that the intended recipient is correct.

While this tip may seem obvious, keep in mind that paying attention to the little details in all aspects of work is what will make you a more valuable asset to your company.