Email Overload Fix: 3 Sentence Emails. Take a minute to read this article from the Wall Street Journal and I would love some feedback from you. Do you think this would help you to reduce or eliminate email overload in your world?

When I teach workshops on Email Overload, one of the areas that I address is sending email. When you send an email, there are steps you can take to help minimize the number of emails you receive in return and decrease the wait time for a response, such as:

• Content - Keep each email to a single topic and be concise (3 sentences??). Make it clear to your audience what you need and when you need it.
  
  
• Subject Line - Make it meaningful. Not only is your recipient more likely to open your email with a meaningful subject, but they can also find it more easily if they are searching for it to reference it at a later date. This also means that if the topic of the email changes after several exchanges back and forth, you should update the subject line accordingly. This way you can avoid the email with a subject line of "Re: Re: Re: Lunch" which now contains the requirements for an upcoming proposal.
  
  
• Formatting - Use formatting, such as bullet points or numbering, to make your emails easier to read. Stay away from all uppercase or all lowercase letters. Also, avoid abbreviations and acronyms that your reader might not be familiar with.

So, next time you sit down at your computer to compose an email, keep these tips in mind and challenge yourself to try to keep it to three sentences. I'm going to give it a try myself, and I look forward to your feedback.