Used to spend 30 minutes formatting every email until a senior dev told me to stop

Two years ago at a small agency in Portland, I would write emails like they were letters. Proper spacing, bullet points, greetings, sign-offs. Took forever. One day a senior dev looked over my shoulder and asked why I was writing a novel. He showed me how he just writes a sentence or two, hits send. Took me a while to unlearn it, but now I send shorter emails and people actually read them faster. Has anyone else had that moment where you realized you were overcomplicating something basic?

3 comments

3 Comments

matthewsullivan1mo ago

Yeah, I had that same talk. Now my emails are basically "Got it" or "Need this by Friday" and that's it. Took me three months to stop writing paragraph four where I'd apologize for writing a long email.

harperschmidt1mo ago

Took me forever to stop over-explaining stuff too, right?

benlewis1mo ago

@matthewsullivan nailed it with that short email thing. The real trick is realizing most people don't read past the first line anyway. I spent way too long thinking every single detail needed to be spelled out or someone would get confused. Turns out if they need more info, they'll ask. And if they don't ask, it was fine. The apology paragraphs are the hardest to kill because it feels rude to stop doing them. But all that extra text just buries what you actually need to say. Now I just send the bare minimum and half the time people say thanks for being clear.