Do you actually read your emails carefully?
Be honest. Most of us just skim through them and details can get lost along the way.
I sent a message regarding a meeting with very specific instructions. I was precise and stressed the importance of those instructions. However, 2 people on the e-vite did NOT bother to read them and almost scuttled the event.
Skimming through an email can cause you to miss important details about more than meetings. Someone I know didn’t read the sender’s signature, just the address. He replied with a “Mr.” instead of a “Ms.”, and included comments that he would not have made had he read the signature and seen that this person was the new CEO. Someone else forgot to look at the reply-by date and answered too late. I’m sure all of you have horror stories of emails gone wrong.
But …
Do you actually compose your emails carefully? Think about it.
Have you left important details for the last paragraph? Have you hidden them in a lot of unnecessary words in the middle? For business emails, or even emails between friends or groups that require coordination and directives, you have to remember to be brief and get quickly to the point. Many people read your email on their phones and will not browse through a short story when 10 words would suffice. If you’re out of the country and getting charged a fortune in roaming fees, you do not want to have to scroll through a text message full of trivial stuff before you get to the important bits.
So:
- WRITE IT! Be concise, precise and clear: say what needs to be said in the first part of your message, and proofread it before hitting the Send button.
- READ IT! When you receive a message, read it all the way through to the end.
