3 Simple Hacks For Awesome Email

We spend a lot of time on emails: 14 hours a week by one estimate! Here are three simple hacks to write better emails that will save you a lot of time and make you look awesome.

  1. Use NNTR in the Subject Line:

NNTR is “No Need To Respond”. When you are spamming your colleagues by sending them pictures of kittens, you don’t usually expect a response. Isn’t it annoying when they reply with pictures of more kittens? Well NNTR can make sure that doesn’t happen.

Source: http://fixnation.org/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/cats-kittens_00379052.jpg

On a serious note, use NNTR when you are sending a report, or you don’t want the other person to drag the conversation forward. Our inboxes can easily get cluttered with small talk. NNTR will make sure only important stuff stays.

2. One Sentence Message

Here is another way of keeping your conversations short and sweet — if you don’t have much to say, use your sentence as the subject line and write “End Of Message” in the body of the email.

Source: Cartoonstock (obviously)

This will not only make you look cool (and busy) but it will also help your receiver save a chunk of time by not requiring her to filter through useless pleasantries and salutations. Remember if it doesn’t add to the message, it takes away from it. This is especially true for emails.

3. Don’t Go Beyond 3 Sentences

If that’s too much of a stretch; call the person. When conveying a message that requires more than 3 sentences for proper explanation, your best bet is to have the conversation in real time. In this way, you can make sure that the other person fully understands your point.

Source: giphy.com

You can also use the 3 sentence limit to force yourself into writing concise emails. No one likes long emails. 3 is that sweet number which will help you deliver your point across while making sure you don’t lose your contact’s interest. (Read about the rule of 3).

That’s all folks.

P.S. An A.I. Personal Assistant inside your inbox? Whaaaat?!!