As we've seen before, getting your inbound email under control will give you a huge productivity boost, but what about all the emails you send? If you want to be a good email citizen and ensure the kind of results you're looking for, you'll need to craft messages that are concise and easy to deal with.
First: Understand why you're writing
Before you type anything into a new message, have explicit answers for two questions:
- Why am I writing this?
- What exactly do I want the result of this message to be?
If you can't succinctly state these answers, you might want to hold off on sending your message until you can. People get dozens, hundreds, eventhousands of emails each day, so it's only natural for them to gravitate toward the messages that are well thought-out and that clearly respect their time and attention. Careless emails do not invite careful responses.
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