I’ve shared before that,

Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.

When you write an email keep it as short as you can.

Then…

Before you press send, review it. Remove all the sentences you don’t need. That probably means taking out the opening niceties so that you get to the point straight away. Remove details that aren’t essential.

After deleting unnecessary sentences, remove the unnecessary words from what’s left. Cut out adjectives and adverbs. They’re great in novels to add colour and emotion but not needed in business writing: choose better verbs and nouns instead.

If your email is requesting some action from the receiver make sure that the action is very clear. If the email is for information only, make that clear, too.

Including phrases like ‘For Action’ and ‘For Information’ in the subject line helps the receiver in two ways. When scanning their inbox they can see what emails are about without opening them and when they select your email they know what to expect when they open it.

Now you have an email that is short and focused. It give the receiver only what they need. It’ll be perfection!

Note: The quotation at the top is by Antoine de Saint-Exupery, the guy who wrote The Little Prince.