Don't Send Nice Emails

Every now and then I circulate an email to my team as an FYI. This could have been something discussed at a management meeting or something I found on the internet. Sometimes it was just a reminder like remember to turn on your out of office message before we go into the long weekend.

Nothing complicated. 

But often these messages were missed or ignored. It was frustrating. Especially when it was a really simple message. 

So I tried different things like repeating myself or sending them all calendar reminders. It helped but it was more work upfront for me. I knew there must be a better way to do this and I started exploring. I found one.

I started condensing the message into the ‘subject’ line. 

I made it easier for them. I gave them everything they needed in the subject line, and nothing in the body text (when possible). 

Now I could have more direct message: reminder: turn on out of office before weekend, or improve your client conversations. Read this 4 minute article. For whatever reason, it doesn’t feel rude to be direct in the subject line. 

So I took it a step further. I started to sell the benefit: Improve your client conversations. Read this 4 minute article. 

Try it, it might just work for you too. 

But what if the message can’t fit in the subject line?

Keep the message succinct in the body. The ‘hope you had a nice weekend’ doesn’t always need to be there. People know you’re only sharing your greeting out of habit, it’s not a real conversation.

Like learning anything for the first time, you’ll probably come across too direct initially. But keep at it and you’ll get the balance right. It’s a great skill to master because it’ll save you oodles of time. 

Can I use this for my emails outside of my team? 

Absolutely! Go nuts. People like it when you save them time. If you reduce the time it takes to digest what you’re sending them, they will appreciate it. It might take you a little longer to craft these messages initially, but it’ll be worth it long term. It’s a skill to be able to explain things well in few words. 

Blaise Pascal once wrote ‘Sorry I wrote such a long letter; I didn’t have time to write a short one’. Put the time in initially. The purpose is to get the message across, it doesn’t matter how many words you use.

I’ve tried this before and I appeared rude. 

Here’s your silver bullet: emojis. Use them to your power. Since we can’t show facial expressions emojis become really vital to communicating a good tone of voice. Don’t worry if people replying to you don’t reciprocate in the same way. The goal is to get your message across as you intend. 

You’ve got this!