How To Kill Reply-All Email Chains Before They Start

You know how sometimes you'll send an email to a bunch of your colleagues and friends, and, instead of replying to just you, they will reply-to-all — and suddenly, your inbox is full of a rambling, irrelevant conversation?

It's awful.

Here are two ways to keep reply-all chains from taking over your life. One tip is for senders of mass emails. The other is for recipients of them.

For senders, the tip is this: Instead of putting the recipients of your mass email in the "To:" or "CC:" fields — put their email addresses in the "BCC:" field and your own email address in the "To:" field. 

Then, when people get your email, they won't even be able to reply to all. Hurray!

Here's what I mean:

If you don't want to start a reply-all chain, put your recipients in the "BCC" field

And here's a tip for recipients of reply-all chains who want them to stop. (Unfortunately, it only works if you are a Gmail user.) 

The tip: Right when you get that first reply-all, check the box next to the email in your Gmail inbox. Then go up to the "More" menu and select "Mute" from it. You will not get any more replies!


Here is an image:

Muting Reply Alls

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