We’ve all done it - sat there and banged out a ranting email whilst steam came out of our ears. But when, or if, you sent it, did it actually do any good? And there’s always the possibility that an angry diatribe could come back to bite you on the bum. Emails, after all, are hard to completely delete; impossible if already sent.

So today’s little tip comes from the blog of CEO Michael Hyatt:

“Over the course of my career, I have fired off my share of angry letters and e-mail. However, I cannot think of a single time when these communiques had a positive effect. Usually, they only served to escalate the conflict and alienate the recipient…”

He goes on to give a handy list of things you can do to both stop yourself sending the email and resolving the problem that inspired it.

So before you click ’send’ on that email telling Dorothy in accounts exactly what she can do with her spreadsheets, read Hyatt’s handy tips here.