We all use e-mail, and we all spend too much time reading and responding to these messages (one estimate cited by Inc. suggests the average office worker spends 2 1/2 hours per day reading and responding to e-mails).Wasn’t e-mail supposed to save time? It can if you follow one important rule. It’s all about streamlining your process. That rule? The CC rule.

It works like this: If you expect a reply from a recipient, you put their name in the “to” field.

If you want to add more people to read your message but don’t need a reply from them, put them in the “CC” field.

However, for the rule to work, everyone in the e-mail has to know how it works. If the e-mail is addressed “to” you, respond. If not and you’re just CC’d, do not respond.

Simple. Inc., Dec. 10, 2019