I value the finite time and attention that we all have available to us. I also find conversations to be rich and meaningful.
That said, I have a lot of email running through my Inbox. Maybe you do, too.
I’ve taught many people how to effectively deal with Inbox overload, and one of the key tenets is to keep messages concise and timely. For the majority of email conversations, a timely, concise response respects your conversant as much or more than a longer one because they can get the information they need quickly and more easily – they aren’t waiting on you and they aren’t having to wade through a bunch of information to figure out what’s going on.
My brief email message is just me walking the talk and ensuring that I don’t bottleneck the conversation. I’m happy to have deeper and extended conversations with you and you aren’t something I’m trying to get out of my Inbox. Please continue the conversation if it’s appropriate, and feel free to write in whatever length and style that feels comfortable for you. I don’t want my anti-bottlenecking practice to bottleneck you.
If you’d like to learn a little more about effective email management, I have a lot of free resources on email management.
I hope this example and the resources help you do more of the things that matter most to you. Life is too short for unnecessarily long emails and there’s also not enough time for the rich interactions we all enjoy. Let’s find the best way to use our time, energy, and attention wisely.