10 Words

In business emails, make your point in 10 words.

If you don't your reader's attention will get interrupted by the BlackBerry, arrivals of new emails, a ringing phone (your desk phone or a neighbor's abandoned cell phone's funky music), drop in visitors or hallway chatter.

There is a habit of inattention that all of these distractions create and reinforce.

If you've read to this point, you have read more words and longer sentences than my average business emails.

Yet my attempt at brevity rarely focuses the reader's attention. It seems that people are so driven by the urgent that they seldom have time for what's in front of them.

They miss meaningful information and insights. They have no lingering presence in the present. They are full of kinetic energy, like a tornado, that brings no rewards.

I've heard it said that every moment should be treated with the slow and full attention that you give to bathing your baby. Nothing in the world is more precious than this moment.