elizabeth900•15d agoProlific Poster

Just realized my coworker was right about email replies

At the office last Tuesday, Jen told me I waste time over-explaining in emails. I brushed it off until I counted my sent messages that week and saw I wrote 14 paragraphs where 3 would do. Now I keep every reply under 5 lines and get way faster responses.

2 comments

2 Comments

julia_patel15d ago

Ugh, I was totally that person too! I used to think longer emails showed I was being thorough and careful. Then my boss forwarded one of my emails to the whole team without warning, and I realized I sounded like I was writing a novel when all they needed was a 2 sentence answer. It actually clicked for me when I noticed the senior folks always wrote short direct messages and still got what they needed. Now I aim for 3 sentences max unless someone asks for specific details. It feels weird at first but people appreciate not having to dig through a wall of text.

logan70515d ago

Put this into practice for a week and you'll see a huge difference, @julia_patel. I thought being thorough meant writing out every possible follow-up question in advance, but people just skimmed the first sentence and emailed me back anyway. Now I write short and add a "let me know if you need more detail" at the bottom. Most people don't even ask for more.