If you reread your emails multiple times before sending, you likely have these 8 personality traits, says psychology

Hitting “Send” shouldn’t feel like defusing a bomb, yet many of us hover over that button as if the whole office might explode.

Maybe you click Draft again, skim the greeting, tweak a comma, wonder if “Kind regards” sounds stiff, and loop back through the text for the fourth—or fourteenth—time.

Sound familiar?

For years, I chalked this habit up to plain old perfectionism. Then I started interviewing colleagues, friends, and a few communication researchers. A pattern emerged: people who obsessively reread outbound messages share a distinct psychological profile that goes well beyond wanting perfect punctuation.

Below are eight personality traits I consistently see in serial email reviewers. I’ve sprinkled in travel anecdotes, three expert quotes, and plenty of questions to help you test the fit. If you recognize yourself, don’t panic—the same qualities that slow you down at “Send” can be enormous strengths when harnessed wisely.

1. You hold yourself to high standards

Perfectionistic tendencies get the spotlight first, but let’s unpack what that really means.

You view written communication as a reflection of your competence. A sloppy typo feels like wearing mismatched shoes to a client meeting—technically functional, but not the message you want to send.

Last winter, while drafting a sponsorship pitch on a night train from Budapest to Prague, I reread a single paragraph seven times before realizing the Wi‑Fi was down and no one could receive the email anyway.

I wasn’t polishing for applause — I was protecting the image I work hard to maintain.

Clinical psychologist Dr. Gordon Flett believes, self‑oriented perfectionism revolves around exacting personal standards and the relentless pursuit of flawlessness. That drive can produce excellent work, yet it also fuels micromanagement of yourself—right down to the last semicolon.

Do you mentally wince when someone calls you “detail‑oriented” as a compliment, because you hear the hidden warning: Don’t slip up?

You’re in the right section.

2. You’re a conscientious communicator

Personality research links the Big Five trait of Conscientiousness to dependable, disciplined behavior. High scorers proofread naturally; low scorers fire off messages with casual typos and half‑finished thoughts.

Rereading ensures promises are clear, deadlines are accurate, and your colleague won’t misinterpret “EOD” as “some time tomorrow.”

Meta-analytic work by Deniz Ones and colleagues shows that conscientious employees reliably outperform peers on accuracy- and follow-through-heavy tasks.

Your email ritual is one manifestation of that accuracy reflex.

The upside?

Fewer misfires, missed attachments, or panicked follow‑up notes. The downside? You burn minutes—or hours—that could fuel bigger projects.

Tip from my own workflow: set a three‑read maximum for routine emails. Big deliverables still get the deluxe treatment, but your lunch‑invite to Sarah shouldn’t steal twenty minutes of your afternoon energy budget.

3. You anticipate emotional fallout

Ever pause mid‑draft and imagine the recipient’s facial expression line by line? That mental simulation points to high affective empathy—an ability to feel what someone else might feel.

You want to ensure your feedback lands gently, your sarcasm doesn’t sting, your concise tone doesn’t read as cold. So you reread with fresh eyes, asking, How would this hit me on a stressful Tuesday?

Dr. Brené Brown puts it bluntly: “Clear is kind.” Rereaders take that maxim seriously, weeding out ambiguous phrasing before it can morph into office drama.

I’ve mentioned this before but during a gig managing a remote team across five time zones, one misjudged Slack message spiraled into an all‑hands call. Lesson learned: spending an extra minute clarifying tone often saves hours of repair later.

If you study email like a mood ring, you probably score high on empathic concern.

4. You carry a dash of social anxiety

Let’s be honest: some repeated rereading stems from fear of negative judgment. You picture higher‑ups scanning your message for mistakes, or peers forwarding your email into a private chat peppered with laughing emojis.

Social anxiety exists on a spectrum, and you don’t need a clinical diagnosis to recognize the jitters.

Communication professor Dr. James McCroskey found that people with elevated communication apprehension rehearse messages longer and prefer asynchronous channels (hello email) because they can edit and control impressions.

A Parisian client once requested same‑day copy revisions while I sat in a noisy hostel lobby. My fingers froze, not from cold but from a sudden worry that every misplaced modifier might shatter the partnership. I reread a record nineteen times before hitting send—then realized the client’s reply was a one‑line “Looks great, thanks!” Anxiety seldom matches reality, but it sure can extend your drafting cycle.

If rereading feels less like polishing and more like bracing for impact, a pinch of social fear may be driving the habit.

5. You respect people’s time and cognitive load

During a layover in Seoul, I wandered into a minimalist stationery shop. Their notebooks sported a slogan I’ve never forgotten: Words should earn their space.

That sentiment guides every communicator who trims fluff to spare the reader. You reread to hunt filler, tighten structure, and foreground actionable details so colleagues can parse your message in one pass.

Harvard cognitive scientist Dr. Steven Pinker argues that good writers serve as “mind readers,” reverse‑engineering how information will be processed. Serial email‑reviewers excel at this invisible service, parceling dense data into skimmable nuggets.

The catch?

Perfect brevity takes longer to craft than a rambling wall of text. As Mark Twain quipped, “I didn’t have time to write a short letter, so I wrote a long one instead.” Your multiple passes reflect the discipline to invest that time for the recipient’s benefit.

6. You value professionalism and credibility

Early in my career I wrote music reviews steeped in slang and inside jokes. Fun, yes, but not exactly boardroom‑ready. Transitioning to psychology‑driven content forced me to confront how an offhand phrase could undercut authority.

People who double‑check for unintended colloquialisms, misused jargon, or reactive language are signaling professional identity: I take this seriously.

The thing is that credibility hinges on a blend of warmth and competence. Typos alone won’t tank credibility, but consistent polish fosters trust when stakes are high.

If you cringe at your older emails (“Too many exclamation points!”) and vow never to repeat them, professionalism drives your rereads.

The email isn’t just words—it’s your handshake across cyberspace.

7. You’re future‑oriented and risk‑averse

Some folks dash off emails assuming any problem can be patched later. Rereaders, on the other hand, imagine worst‑case scenarios and engineer safeguards before pressing send.

Labeling the attachment correctly, confirming the date format for international teams, clarifying who’s responsible for next steps—these small checks prevent big headaches.

Quote drop at the start of this paragraph: “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure,” Benjamin Franklin advised long before inboxes existed. Your brain lives by that proverb.

While friends may tease you for overthinking, your cautious nature means projects rarely derail because of your oversight. Just watch that the risk lens doesn’t freeze you in endless drafts. Perfection is great until it strangles progress.

8. You practice deliberate self‑reflection

Rereading isn’t only about the message—it’s a micro‑moment of mindfulness. Each pass invites you to observe how your ideas evolve, how mood influences word choice, how structure clarifies thought.

Mindfulness can be defined as active engagement; noticing new things and drawing novel distinctions.

That’s exactly what happens when you catch an unintended implication on the third read and adjust.

This habit spills outward. You replay conversations in your head, analyze decisions, and catalog lessons for next time. Friends might say you “think too much,” but reflective processing underpins learning and growth.

Quick anecdote: After emailing a vegan recipe to 80,000 subscribers, I woke at 2 a.m. realizing I’d listed grams instead of ounces. A fourth reread would have caught it. I logged that slip in my “post‑mortem notebook” (yes, really) and revamped my checklist. Reflection turned a gaffe into a system upgrade.

The bottom line

Reading your email five times before sending isn’t just a quirky habit — it’s a signal flare pointing to conscientiousness, empathy, professional pride, and a knack for risk management.

Sure, the practice can veer into anxiety or perfectionism overload. But handled wisely, these traits make you the colleague people trust with sensitive details and urgent briefs.

So the next time someone chuckles at your hovering cursor, remember: careful communication sustains relationships, prevents crises, and showcases respect.

Just don’t let the quest for pristine prose keep your ideas bottled up.

Three, two, one—send.

Then get back to the work that matters beyond your inbox.