The Subject Line: A Critical Key to the Success of Your Management System

by Robertt Young

When we send an email or create a new action item in our EDGE Management System, what we put in the subject line becomes critical for the reader (either ourselves as in the case of our ToDo list in Lotus Notes, the Task List in Outlook or for the reader of an email).  Think about how you feel when you get an email from someone with a blank subject line.  Or think about  how difficult it is figure out what you are suppose to do on an action item in your Task List/To Do list if all that is written is “call Fred” or “Fortune 500 report”.  Do you remember what you need to call Fred about or what you need to do with the Fortune 500 report?  This is especially true when you see those items along with all the other things you have to do on your Task/To Do List.  Psychologists tell us when it comes to viewing a long list of things our scan rate is only about 8-10 seconds.  That means we only have 8 -10 seconds to decide what we are going to do with an item on a list before we move on to the next item.

Let’s take email first. There are some small things we can do at the beginning of the subject line of an email. For example, when you need something done by another person just begin with “Action Requested”  it can help your reader in several ways:

1. When you use Action Requested at the beginning of the Subject line your reader immediately knows that this is a high priority email.
2. When your reader is processing their email they can sort by subject and handle all their action items first.  Then they can move to the others like FYI or FYI Delete. 

When you are working with the Task/To Do List,  you want to remember to use the ACTIONS criteria.  ACTIONS is an acronym that stands for:

Action: put an action verb at the beginning so your attentions is drawn to the action you want to take. If you have several actions of the same kind they will group together alphabetically.
Can you see yourself doing it – if you can’t see yourself performing the action you will procrastinate.
Thought  Process – think through what really is the next action. If I want to go from one side of the room to the other I cannot do it in one step, I must take one small step after another.

Independent: Is it a single independent step?
One Sitting to complete: Do I have everything I need to complete this action?
Next Strategic Step: Is it the next step in a large task or project or are there steps I need to do first?
Specific: When I do the 8 – 10 scan will I know exactly what I need to do?

Try these steps and suggestions and see how they help in your everyday activities.