How to Save Time and Get to the Point with Shorter Emails

Then do something useful instead

Have you ever received an email that was like a never-ending essay? You open it, scroll a bit, and realise it will take ages to read and understand. You have more important things to do, so don't read it, but you worry that you might have missed something important.

If you're guilty of writing such emails, or if you're tired of receiving them, read on to discover a simple communication hack that can save you hours of time.

Situation → Complication → Resolution

The consultancy McKinsey developed this model that breaks down communication into three parts, making it easier to write and read efficient emails or presentations. Here's how to apply it to your emails:

Part 1: Situation. Provide the context of your email and set the scene. For example, if you're a software engineer emailing the product owner of your team, you might say, "I checked my calendar for the next week and found that I’ll be in meetings for 60% of my time."

Part 2: Complication. Explain the reason for sending the email or giving the presentation. In the example above, it might be, "This means that I’ll only have 20% of my working time to efficiently write code for your product due to the impact of meetings and context switching."

Part 3: Resolution. Offer a solution to the complication. In the software engineer's case, it could be, "To give us the best chance of making our upcoming product release deadline, I’m going to prioritise coding and decline all non-essential meetings."

Using the Situation → Complication → Resolution model can help you write shorter, more effective emails that save you and your readers time. After a while, it becomes automatic. So if you have to write an email, use this approach to get to the point quickly!

Hope this was useful.

Catch you later.

Iain