Send Shorter Emails
Why writing less communicates more
A professor in college would tag every email as important. Upon opening the first few, I quickly realized it wasn’t as important as she thought. Each email was painfully long, poorly organized, and uneventful. After the 2–3 weeks, I didn’t read any more of them.
When you write less, the content is actually consumed. Communication is two sided: information sent and information received. If you expect it to be read and thoughtfully digested, keep it short. Long emails often contain too much, which makes grasping the point even more challenging.
While it may seem like most emails include a lot of valuable information, that’s simply not the case. Short emails have higher readability, are more deliberate, and respect the time of others.
If you don’t have the time or energy to write a short, clear email… summarize at the end. That’s right, include a 2–5 bullet list at the end of email touching on what you mentioned above. If you can’t summarize in 2–5 bullets, you’re email is saying too much.
Writing a good, short email is a skill.
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Originally posted on morganjlopes.com
