According to Craig Jarrow, the author of Time Management Ninja web site, effective email communication is as much a skill as anything else. The shorter and tighter your email messages, the better chance that they will be read, understood and acted upon.
Here are 10 Reasons That Your Emails Are Too Long:
- You don’t know what you are trying to say
- You don’t know what you are talking about
- Your signature is unnecessary
- You are writing a book
- You are spamming
- You are rambling
- You are forwarding a mess
- It shouldn’t be an email
- It should be multiple emails
- You don’t edit your emails
In today’s high-speed communication, no one wants to read overly long email messages.
So, get to the point!
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I read so many emails a day and I agree that the ones I best respond to are short and to the point. They clearly outline what I need to know or do from the email. I try and use the same strategy in the emails I write as well.
I agree with you, Stephanie. Clarity and conciseness are the key to a positive email experience. 🙂
I’m a heavy user of email but I have to say that I do detest it at times. For rapid, external communications it is unbeatable but as a tool within the same organization I think it is a time hog when abused and used in the wrong way.
I remember a time when there was no email, not even desktop computers and the workflow was as efficient as it is today. Obviously, the pace was slower but simplicity reigned supreme. It was an era when the yellow Post-it note was the de-facto way of spreading your ideas to colleagues.
With Post-its you had a limited space and you had to learn to be concise. The modern day equivalent is Twitter with its 140 character limit. I believe that more organizations should adopt a form of short messaging service for internal collaboration. Something already exists in the form of HootSuite Conversations – Internal Communication Tool. It would surely reduce the time wasted sending emails for the mundane daily tasks.