Keeping It Short And Sweet: The Science Of An Email

Keeping your inbox free of emails is a productivity concept popularized by David Allen in his book Getting Things Done. I do find it somewhat comforting to open my email and find only a few messages in the inbox. Allen likens this to an answering machine blinking with only the most recent messages. It’s easy to know at a glance what needs to be addressed.

If keeping your inbox empty improves productivity then surely there is room for improvement on writing the actual message itself. I didn’t really think about how I compose emails until recently.

 

Start by asking a few simple questions.

• Are my emails too long?
• Does it take me forever to get to the point?
• Why is it in some emails I don’t get ALL my questions answered?
• Why do some messages not get responded to at all?

I went searching through my archives and found emails that I had written a while ago. When looking at them from an analysis point of view, yes my messages seemed to be a bit long. Most emails had a lot of fluff before getting to the point and if I was asking questions they were buried in a heap of text making it pretty difficult to keep track of.

Example of a long, wordy email likely to be skimmed and overlooked (oh and totally made up!):

Hi Sue,

It was really great catching up with you the other day I hope we don’t leave it as long before we do it again. I really liked hearing about how your most recent projects are coming along. I always knew you had it in you! Right from day one I knew you would succeed. Anyway, I was wondering if you would be willing to send me a copy of your business plan so I could have a look at it? I can’t remember where you said you got the template from either. 

I’m still working on getting my second company up and running but I’m starting to get bogged down in all the details. You know how it is endless meetings and phone calls it really difficult to find the time to do anything else.  How did you find your assistant? Was it through the yellow pages or a temp agency? 

Ok well again it was really great catching up with you today. We’ll have to do it again soon.

Bye for now,
Laura 

Long right? Not easy looking at a glance what it’s really about and what Laura wants from Sue, if anything.

I’ve come up with a short and sweet list of guidelines for composing emails that should help if you’ve encountered some of the problems I elude to in the questions above.

My tips for writing clear concise emails that get responses.

1. Be concise. Keep it short and sweet. Get to the point within the first sentence or two MAX.

2. Be clear. If you have several questions you need answered break them out into numbered bullets.

3. Be specific. Don’t imply or assume. People are not mind readers. Spell things out such as deadlines, resource needs or what their specific role is.

4. Add formatting. Over use of formatting can be really annoying but bolding a key concept or question will draw the recipients eye and the point will less likely be over looked.

5. Use attachments. If a message is too long and cumbersome it’s likely it will only be skimmed and left for later. Put the details in an attachment and refer to it in the body of your email.

Same email with tips applied: 

Hi Sue,

Great catching up with you today. I have a few follow up questions for you:

1. Could you send me a copy of your business plan? 
2. Can you tell me where you got the template for your business plan?
3. How did you find your assistant, Jane? Yellow pages? Temp agency?

I’m getting started on my business plan today and could really use your help.

Let’s do lunch again next week.
Laura 

Your email is more likely to be read if it is short, to the point and presented in a manner that it is structured and clear. If done in this way the recipient knows exactly what you want or need from them. It not only saves them time reading it, but it also saves you time writing it.

Do you send emails that are long, wordy and nearly impossible to decipher? Do you have any other tips on making email writing more efficient? Have your say in the comments.

Photo courtesy of: Incase Designs

************************************************************************

Keeping It Short And Sweet is a series of posts done every Thursday at Serene Journey (this is the first one!). We will address topics that we are interested in learning a bit more about, topics that are generally useful and those that have helped us enjoy life just that little bit more. If you have any suggestions for this series feel free to drop us an email or leave them in the comments. Be sure to sign up for our free subscription and have posts delivered directly to your email inbox or your RSS reader. Thanks for reading!