Email has, for good or ill, become the center of many people's work lives. Whatever your profession -- business, government, the law, social services, education, retail, advertising, publishing, research -- chances are you spend hours every day writing and responding to emails.
Unfortunately, too many people write poor emails. They ramble, use unclear terms, and use shorthand that's hard to understand.
By following a few simple tricks -- to organize your work and then express your thoughts, line by line -- you can overcome the email nightmare.
In fact, when you follow these simple tricks, you'll get a valuable side benefit: All your other writing will improve as well. In fact, when you use email effectively, you can "burn" all the best habits of management and communication into your brain. We do so much email that it's the perfect activity to train your brain.
So can email save your life? Well, maybe not. But it can help you to write better, work more creatively -- and, in the process, save hundreds of hours a year.
Part I: Finding Your Way
1. Everybody’s Doing It
2. Managing the Flow
3. The Purpose-Driven Email
4. Wayfinding
5. Know Your Audience
Part II. Writing Well, Line by Line
6. The Narrative Imperative
7. The Golden Rule of Writing
8. Picking the Right Words
9. Writing with Style
10. Editing
11. Email Etiquette
Part III: Making Everything Better
12. Email as a Management Tool
13. The Stacking Problem
14. How Email Can Save Your Life
Appendix: Checklist
Unfortunately, too many people write poor emails. They ramble, use unclear terms, and use shorthand that's hard to understand.
By following a few simple tricks -- to organize your work and then express your thoughts, line by line -- you can overcome the email nightmare.
In fact, when you follow these simple tricks, you'll get a valuable side benefit: All your other writing will improve as well. In fact, when you use email effectively, you can "burn" all the best habits of management and communication into your brain. We do so much email that it's the perfect activity to train your brain.
So can email save your life? Well, maybe not. But it can help you to write better, work more creatively -- and, in the process, save hundreds of hours a year.
Part I: Finding Your Way
1. Everybody’s Doing It
2. Managing the Flow
3. The Purpose-Driven Email
4. Wayfinding
5. Know Your Audience
Part II. Writing Well, Line by Line
6. The Narrative Imperative
7. The Golden Rule of Writing
8. Picking the Right Words
9. Writing with Style
10. Editing
11. Email Etiquette
Part III: Making Everything Better
12. Email as a Management Tool
13. The Stacking Problem
14. How Email Can Save Your Life
Appendix: Checklist
