I recently came across Josh Spector’s list of one-sentence email tips. While nobody wishes they had processed more email at the end of their life, I think it’s worth thinking about how we use this communication method and try to improve how it is used. These were the top 10 tips I found particularly interesting:
- The simplest way to get fewer emails is to send fewer emails.
- The most important sentence in any email is the first one.
- The more ideas you try to communicate in a single email, the more likely one will be overlooked.
- If a message was truly urgent, it wouldn’t have been sent to you in an email.
- You don’t need to sign your name at the end of your email — the recipient knows who it’s from.
- If you reply to emails immediately, you train people to expect you to reply immediately.
- The more your email sounds like you speak, the more effective it will be.
- The best way to get your question answered is to end your email with the question.
- The emails you send over and over again don’t need to be written over and over again —create templates.
- If you’re not working on email now, your inbox shouldn’t be open now.
This has really caused me to think about how I write my emails and I hope to keep working on improving them. One overall concept I’m trying to adopt is that emails are not letters and probably should not be written, formatted, and treated as such. What are your email best practices? If you would like to share any tips – please send them to greg_danklef@byu.edu. I will gladly accept your email messages if they help lead us to better practices!