Don’t Send That Email II

September 2, 2009 by Jerry

email_skimming

In Monday’s post you read about how, as a writer, I learned about spaced learning—the process of reviewing multiple drafts of a document over a span of time—with my first book, a paperback novel. I carried that lesson forward through to the writing of three business books, multiple articles, and blogs. This two-part blog took about two dozen drafts. I even apply spaced learning to my electronic correspondence.

When someone sends me an email with a simple query such as a confirmation of a meeting or a program, I compose a short reply and hit “Send” promptly. For any other email of more substance, I have an ironclad rule: after composing my message, I save it as a draft for an interval of anywhere from a few minutes to a few hours. Inevitably, whenever I return, I find words, phrases, sentences, or expressions that need rewriting. Spaced learning even works in the short form.

One of the additional rules of my review process is to look for opportunities to insert the word “you” as often as possible. If you search the web for a Yale University study of persuasive words, you’ll find nearly 200,000 unsubstantiated references to a ranked list of the top 10 persuasive words. “You” leads the list. (The others, in descending order are: “Easy,” “Money,” “Save,” “Love,” “New,” “Discovery,” “Results,” “Proven,” and “Guarantee.”)

Unsubstantiated or not, “you” has undeniable power. In a post earlier this year, you read how Barack Obama has leveraged the word. You, too, can leverage it—right in your own email. For example, if you met someone at a business event and discussed a working relationship, you might write a follow-up email as follows:

It was good that we met at the conference. I look forward to working together.

With “you” added, your message would read:

It was good to have met you at the conference. I look forward to working with you
on the project we discussed.

Try the “you” rule in your email; but whether you do or do not, always use spaced learning. Follow the additional advice of Curt Smith, General Manager of SQL Strategy Infrastructure and Architecture at Microsoft, who has three of his own email rules:

Never send an email when you’re angry
Never send an email after a glass of wine
Never send an email after midnight

Or follow the advice of Nichole Nears, the Power Presentations Program Manager, who never sends an email between one AM and four AM because it will be lost among all the spam blasts. (I hope she sleeps instead.)

Or follow the advice of John Freeman, the author of a forthcoming book called, The Tyranny of E-mail. Mr. Freeman wrote a preview of the book as an essay in the Wall Street Journal which prompted my previous blog. He concluded his essay with these words:

Saying what we mean is as hard as it ever was. It starts with a simple instruction: Don’t send.

To which I add one word, “yet.”

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