A few years ago, I posted here on my blog about Email Impulsiveness. I was reminded again this week about ADD, impulsiveness and emailing. Fortunately, I made a cool 
and collected decision, which I wouldn’t have made a number of years ago…..good thing we have the ability to learn and grow. However, many ADD’ers struggle controlling that verbal impulsiveness and that spills into the email world too. In today’s age of technology, this impulsiveness must now be controlled on the Internet, specifically with email.
Whether it is a personal or work related email, we’ve all received the type of email that makes you want to respond back with fury and give someone a piece of your mind! Controlling that impulsiveness is very important on email. There is a lot of potential for an email to be misunderstood or misinterpreted. As an ADD’er, I have adopted a strategy that allows me to respond and not regret what I have written. Here are a few tips I follow to manage this:
1) Keep cool, the understanding or intent of the message may not be understood
2) Create your response in a Word document first, to avoid sending something by accident. It also allows you to cool down and gather your thoughts.
3) Once you have formatted your response, save it and come back to it later. It may offer you a different perspective and allow you to respond more effectively.
I have a post-it note stuck to the side of one of my computer monitors at work that simply says “24 hours.” Doesn’t mean anything to anyone else who walks in, but it’s a reminder to me to stop and wait 24 hours (whenever possible) before replying to an e-mail that has sent me into a fit of impulsive rage. Has definitely helped me save face a few times.