Imagine if Moses had come down from that mountain not with two huge stone tablets with 10 commandments for the people to follow, but with one small tablet, with a single commandment. Wouldn’t have that been a lot easier to remember? I wonder if God thought 10 was a pretty concise number for a while, then realized his error and sent Jesus along to wrap all those commandments up into one – Love one another. That, I think, I can remember.
The point here is to be concise in your email. Keep the entire communication to one point. It won’t get read otherwise. If you have to make two points, send a second email. This way any replies to your single pointed email will be also be similarly single pointed.
In part 2 I will discuss what to do if this isn’t the case and an email or a reply comes in with multiple points.
[...] Note: Part 2 in a series on better email communication. Write better, get better results. Here’s Part I. [...]