Last week, I sent an email in which "Sorry about that!" was my automatic reply — I had forgotten something, and the person's curt message made clear that they were less than pleased with me. But after a minute of consideration, I took out the "sorry" and told them I'd do what they were requesting ASAP. I did, the task got done and everyone was fine. No harm, no foul.

The "10-page anti-diversity screed" that got a Google employee fired this week is a prime example of many, many societal ills. Besides the larger issues of systematic oppression, workplace harassment, and misogyny and racism that are rampant in the tech industry at large, there's a simpler lesson to be learned here:

If you'd got a company-wide message board, blog, or Slack channel, maybe use some common sense before blasting something out to the entire staff, including your bosses?

There's no doubt Google runs a tight ship as far as security goes, if you're hacked using Google services its usually (but not always) because of something you did, not Google. If you want to keep your emails on Google's services more secure you'll need to do more than just enable two-factor authentication. You need to practice safe browsing, steering clear of sites and emails that could steal your info.

Spelling and grammar are the cornerstones of professional writing: but that's only half the battle won. To really make your writing shine, you need to avoid cliches, fluff, nondescript adverbs, redundant phrases, purple prose and filler words. This infographic from GlobalEnglishEditing lists 23 phrases you need to pull back on, along with suggested alternatives.

We all send and receive a deluge of emails every day and no one wants their messages to be ignored, but what's the best way to end a message so that you actually get a reply? "Thanks", "best wishes" or something else?

If one of your new year's resolution is to finally tame your email inbox, here's a five-folder system that can help you do that.

Recomendo is an email newsletter from the editors at Cool Tools filled with interesting recommendations about useful tools, interesting books and more. And it's particularly succinct.

What's that? It's 9PM on a Sunday night and your boss just sent you an email, subject line "URGENT"?

Chrome/iOS: Handle is the productivity add-on that Google should have made. It seamlessly combines emails, to-do lists and calendars to make Gmail your central productivity hub.

An overflowing, overwhelming inbox is a common lament. How do we manage this constant stream of incoming messages? The Atlantic's James Hamblin has five golden rules you can follow.

A key part of writing an email that gets a response from your busy coworkers is formatting. Here's the format you should use to make it easier to get the information you need in the time you need it.

Emails can easily take over our work lives. If you're an entrepreneur who is spending more time checking business emails rather than progressing the business itself, here are a few tricks to fix this.

We've all experienced email overload, and some emails require a fair amount of time to write a reply. If you don't have time to get to an email right away, at least tell the recipient when they can expect to hear back from you.

If you find yourself constantly getting sucked into long, ping-pong style email conversations, using if-then statements might help you save some time.

When it comes to productivity apps, simplicity of design and familiarity are usually king, because nobody wants to learn a whole new system every time they check out a new to-do app. But sometimes, apps break the pre-written productivity rules and make something completely different.

Email. Can't live with it. Can't get your job done without it. Am I right? Last year we sent over 2.5 billion emails. And here's the bad news. In spite of a good amount of loathing, that number is only expected to grow. The volume is an issue, as is the time you spend on it. In fact, reports say you check it about 36 times per hour. 36 times. In a single hour.

Emails and text messages go off half-cocked all the time, whether it's a sensitive work message on which you unintentionally copied the whole company in on, or — as in Peter Dutton's recent stuff-up — a ranty text message that went to the target of your ire rather than to a crony.

Email has had a huge impact on the way we communicate and in most workplaces, it has become the preferred way for people to interact with each other. So what would you do if you weren't allowed to use it anymore? We talked with one company that is on a mission to abolish internal emails entirely.

Internal emails from the company you work for can be crucially important or a complete irrelevance -- either way, being able to spot these company messages at a glance in your inbox can make a big difference to your email productivity. Here’s how to quickly set up a filter in three of the most popular desktop clients.