Large companies don’t like instant messaging because it is too informal (edit: typo originally stated formal, changed to informal), and not structured enough. But users that want to get stuff done during the day ,don’t tend to care for email Emails are lengthy, and often pointless.

Enter the two sentence email.

This is a website I found a while back, and it is phenomenal.

two.sentenc.es is a personal policy that all email responses regardless of recipient or subject will be two sentences or less. It’s that simple.

And in its simplicity lies its power.

Now I thought - how do I whittle down an email to only two sentences? Sometimes writing only two sentences is hard, but once I got the hang of, it then it was no problem.

Here are some pointers.

Out With:

• Small Talk
• Salutations
• Thanking people

In With:

• The Point
• The Answer

You know who you are sending the email to, they know who it is coming from. The subject should tell them what it is regarding, the body should tell them everything they need to know. If you know you can’t say it in two sentences or less, then email is not the communication medium you should be using. I recommend picking up the phone.

Developing the Habit

To get into the habit of sending a two sentence email, I recommend typing your responses on your smart phone if you have one, or making the email window really small. Typing on a phone will keep you from running long, out of thumb fatigue, and a small screen size will make what you typed look really long.

Thus psychologically helping you to write a shorter email.

Staying Friendly

My first fear was that people would think I was being short with them. I posted the link in my email signature to the two sentences website, but I knew that many would not click on it. So to get people used to my new found short email ways, I added the following text to the bottom of my email:

People tend to let curt responses go if they think you typed the email on your phone. People know that you don’t type long emails on a phone, and they are OK with getting short emails when they think you were on a phone.

People Will Return the Favor

Have you ever walked up to someone a whispered to them, what do they do? They whisper back. Same rules apply with short emails.

Send a short email, and most often you will get a short email back.

The opposite is true as well. So if you want to shorten emails people send you across the board, then start sending short emails, people will return the favor.

Related posts:

• Email — You Used to Be Useful
• ∞ Email Sanity: How to Clear Your Inbox When You’re Drowning
• Keeping Your Inbox Empty
• Ninja Email Tactics: Smart Mailboxes
• Take a Real Vacation