How to write emails people actually read

Nearly all organizational problems trace back to communication problems, and email is still the dominant written form in most places whatever chat tool sits alongside it.

Length is the most common mistake, in both directions. Opening an email should feel like unwrapping a present, where you know instantly what is inside. But a one-liner lands as dismissively as a rambling paragraph, like the sender did not think you were worth the extra sentence it would have taken to soften it.

Writing something short and sharp takes more time than dashing off something long. That is the whole difficulty, and it is why this is a checklist rather than advice.

What you get

• The five rules, with what each one actually means
• One concrete check per rule to run a draft through
• The reason a human-sounding email is worth more now than it used to be

Adapted from the Management chapter of The Mindful Product Company by Sam McAfee.