Email Rule of Thumb

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We all know effective email is a key to getting things done. One of the best tips I ever heard on writing effective emails came from a Microsoft exec. It was quite literally a “rule of thumb” in that he tried to never send an email longer than his thumb.

There are a lot of jokes about executives with adult ADD, but the truth is, we’re all busy. We could sort through a rambling email long enough to pull out the salient points, but at what costs? And, since so many people are reading their emails on a PDA or their mobile phone, brevity is usually appreciated.

If your message has to be longer than your thumb because of the amount of information you need to convey, consider whether or not it would make more sense to arrange the message into a formal brief. You can then easily add headers and a table of contents to increase readability.