Permission to Send Only Short Emails - Granted
By Tana M. Mann Easton, Lead Efficiency Engineer
As useful as email can be, at times it can be really frustrating. One irritating aspect of email is when someone sends a quick one-line question that will require many minutes and paragraphs to respond to. Did you know, some people have ways to sidestep this annoyance entirely?
In Cal Newport’s book, A World Without Email, he references the president of the University of Southern California. He was receiving over 300 emails a day, and responding to all those emails was blocking him from being a leader and accomplishing anything proactive or of lasting substance. He devised a system where, instead of responding endlessly to emails, he kept all his emails brief, no longer than an average text message. If a response required more than that, he would call the person or set up a meeting. He simply stopped sending long emails.
Cal’s book also told the story of a web designer who decided to keep all his emails short, to 5 sentences or fewer. He created a simple website to politely explain his email policy, and in his signature line he directed people who were wondering why his emails are always 5 sentences or less to his website explaining his policy.
Both of these professionals deduced that responding endlessly to emails was not the best use of their time, and they decided that email was from now on only for short communications. They opted out of a behavior that wasn’t serving them. I personally don’t mind crafting a long and well-thought-out email. However, if my time and attention was requested by many people, I know that something would have to give, and those long emails might be one of the first things to go. If you feel you spend too much time on email, perhaps deciding on your own short email guidelines could be just the trick to claim back some of your precious time.
If you or your team would like to sign up for our 2 hour Balance and Productivity training to instantly double your meaningful output and find the feeling of lasting flow and optimized work life balance, please click here and say hello!
Sincerely Yours,
Focus to Evolve Team