Can I learn to write emails more quickly?

June 4, 2012 7:25 AM

How can I learn to write emails quickly without agonizing over wording? I feel like it takes me ten times longer than it should. Even a simple two-sentence reply often takes me five minutes to compose and send, because I'll rewrite each sentence at least 3 times, then re-read it and tweak the wording endlessly.

Even this post has taken me 10 minutes to write when I feel like I should be able to do it in 2. It's infuriating because I feel like I'm wasting time, and it also keeps me from responding to emails because I know the effort it's going to take me to compose the response, especially if someone has explicitly asked for my input or opinion. There is clearly a psychological component to why I do this, but I haven't quite put my finger on what it is. It has something to do with being afraid of being misunderstood, I think, or of not getting heard. In general I tend to be more anxious than the average person, which probably has something to do with it as well.

I am so envious of people who seem to be able to just dash off an email without ever hitting the delete button. Is there a way to train myself to become one of those people, but still give thoughtful responses?

posted by roscopcoletrane to work & money (13 answers total)

Close your eyes, type, press Send. (This only works if you can touch type, of course, but it works every time for me to buck up and answer emails.)
posted by dekathelon at 7:31 AM on June 4, 2012

Are these emails for a work-setting or general emails? (I'm going to assume this is also for an office setting, because that may be part of the worry?) These are short cuts that I take mainly so that I don't re-invent the wheel each time:

- Save copies of a generic email for each respective topic if it is something that you need to send frequently/monthly/a few times a month; start with your generic email for edit it for the recipient;

- You don't have to send it immediately; write it, edit it, let it sit in your draft box if you are really worried (i.e. I try not to send stuff in the morning because fog brain won't see as many errors, but YMMV);

-If it is a business setting and you need someone to do something, also include "Please do X by date 01/01/2013"or please confirm or whatever (because people often read an email and don't know what action to take...if it is really important to have that action done and the reader is a busy person, put the actionable item on the topic;

-Email a reminder (i.e. the person did not do the actionable item by date x/x/xxxx). You can actually use peer pressure...Dear Dr.Blah blah, I was hoping to receive your item X. All other physicians have replied and we would love to include your study, too. Can you please reply by X/X/XXXX.

- Think about your audience. Is this a business? Yes, proof and look for errors. Is this your buddy that you write to a few times a day/several times a week? Don't worry about it as much because the main point is to communicate an idea (Do you want to go here, get a beer, see this star, etc.). To be honest, don't worry about any errors or wording as long as the main idea is there.Unless your friend is a weirdo who will be looking for grammar/word usage stuff, just send it out. I'm sure a friend would rather get an invite vs. not getting an invite but the grammar/spelling is perfect.
posted by Wolfster at 7:48 AM on June 4, 2012 [2 favorites]

I found my send-hitting anxiety was reduced by adding a few autochecks.

Spell check runs once I hit send and it always catches on a corporate acronym. This gives me a chance to cancel if something is glaringly wrong, and it tricks me into feeling like I can just hit send already without feeling like I am fully committed.

Also auto check for blank subject lines. That one is a life saver.

In general - focus on efficiency over perfection as The New Cool. Ask questions or make your point up front, then provide context. Pull relevant info out of attachments and quote it inline if at all possible.
posted by skrozidile at 7:54 AM on June 4, 2012 [1 favorite]

I think it's admirable that you bother to think about what you're saying and take time to express it carefully. I try to do the same.

I realize that the time taken to craft a good message can be daunting, but you probably know that in many cases, the time you invest in writing a good message in the first place can let you avoid back-and-forthing when your message was prone to misunderstanding.

So:
- Know when you're dealing with a topic prone to misunderstanding, and devote time to that.
- When a "yes" "no" or "I don't know" will suffice, just go with that: be direct, unambiguous, and don't fret over equivocations.
- Habits of writing are like any other habit, and the more you practice them, the more automatic they become. If you need to give yourself some kind limit, like no editing, or one editing pass, or only 5 sentences per e-mail, or whatever, do that and live with it. It'll get easier.
posted by adamrice at 7:55 AM on June 4, 2012 [1 favorite]

I have these same anxieties about emails. What I do to try and fix this problem is to eliminate all ambiguities and "tone" from my word choices. I think that's because when we are speaking, we generally use all kinds of body language and tone to convey meaning that isn't necessarily in the words we choose. So the idea is to expand the vocabulary you are using so that you are using words that cannot be misinterpreted.

What you need to do is first, think constructively, which is sort of like excising emotions and replacing them with the reasons for the emotions. And then practice putting those thoughts into words. It might be as easy of thinking of a whole sentence before typing it out.

The other thing is that the write-delete-write-revise-trash-start-over process might just be how you work through your thoughts. Perhaps the people who dash off an email seemingly quickly are really doing that same process in their heads before they touch the keyboard.

(And, on preview, context is important. Not just "is this work or personal" context, but making sure you and the recipient are on the same context. I'll often get emails from someone that are the result of a conversation that I wasn't a party to. I'll just get a "here is the list of targets". WTF does that mean? When sending emails, make sure your recipient is in the same mind space as you are. Something more like "after speaking with a couple of people, we realized everyone didn't have an accurate list of targets for the Jenkins account.")
posted by gjc at 8:00 AM on June 4, 2012 [2 favorites]

I have spent thousands of hours doing exactly what you describe. It has helped me to realize that people prefer to READ casual, breezy, and short first-draft-style message than ones I've labored over. When I reread past emails (and Metafilter comments!) that I've written, even *I* get slowed down by verbs I thought were more precise that end up just sounding thesaurus-ized, or clauses or adverbs or parentheticals that I'd inserted after the fact "for clarity," etc.. It has also helped to realize that I was using the initial deluge-of-consciousness writing process, and then a long editing stage, to actually do the thinking about what I wanted to communicate. I'm much more efficient now if I take just a moment first to decide what my key points need to be; then they're much easier to just put on the page on the first try and send.

In a business setting, I've also relied on having a few stock phrases that help me convey politeness, urgency, what have you, to take that weight off the body of the content. "I'd be happy to provide more detail" can be a huge time-up-front-saver, for example. Try to phrase questions that you need a response to as questions, ideally each on their own line, rather than "Let me know"-type statements buried in the text. Also, try to make your questions as 'closed' as possible, e.g., asking "Would 2:00pm on Tuesday work, or is there a better time for you on Wednesday between 10:00am and 4:00pm?" (vs. "When do you want to follow up?"). Also, realize that in email, you don't always have to use full sentences. If someone wants your opinion, it's perfectly fine in most settings to write back "Thanks, So-and-so! Three initial thoughts:" followed by a bulleted list.

It's been (and maybe will be) a lifelong battle for me, but I've made huge headway and find it very freeing just to actively decide which messages require in-depth thought and acknowledge that many/most absolutely do not. Feeling in control of your process can be as valuable as feeling in control of the specifics your email content. This kindred spirit wishes you the best of luck!
posted by argonauta at 8:18 AM on June 4, 2012 [7 favorites]

I wouldn't consider rewriting sentences to be more indicative of a more thoughtful response. Just write down a list of things you're trying to convey as bullet points and then once you're sure you have everything, rewrite it into sentences. The important thing is that all the content is there. Nobody is giving style points to emails because of your stellar use of subordinate clauses and semicolons.
posted by empath at 9:00 AM on June 4, 2012

I increased my speed by asking for what I really want and only writing one sentence if possible.
posted by michaelh at 9:14 AM on June 4, 2012

$&*@# I just realized how unnecessarily labored my previous comment was. *@#^*(@$#^.
posted by argonauta at 10:03 AM on June 4, 2012 [1 favorite]

Could you use IM more? With IM it's OK to just write half-formed sentences and complete or amend your thoughts immediately, as you do when speaking. That can be pretty liberating. It can also make some of your e-mails unnecessary.
posted by Tobu at 1:05 PM on June 4, 2012

When I find myself agonizing over an email, I read this comic. And I try to put myself in the place of the professor, and figure out what the most important point is. After that I add in pleasantries like "hello" and "regards."
posted by ke rose ne at 5:58 PM on June 4, 2012

I have this exact problem. For me it's perfectionism - I really want to make sure the receiver understands the email as well as if we were talking in real life, so I sort of overcompensate for non-verbal cues with punctuation and forty thousand extra words.

A small thing that helped was to stop using exclamation points ever. It just mentally takes me out of friendly girl mode and puts me in business mode.
posted by TallulahBankhead at 9:05 PM on June 4, 2012

Me too! Sometimes I set a timer (ok 5 minutes only and send); sometimes I try to write a couple emails right in a row that contain the same basic information that I can cut and paste with pleasantries and personal details added in; sometimes I write on paper and then input it into the computer which helps with just one rewrite; sometimes I just accept that I am a slow writer (this decreases the anxiety but does not speed up the process) especially if the email is important or I am trying to convey a complicated idea. I am totally going to take the idea of argonauta's stock phrases.
posted by mutt.cyberspace at 8:15 AM on June 5, 2012