Advice from Leo Babauta: do not write long letters!

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Surprisingly, many, very many, despite the general employment, continue to write very long e-mails! Do not do that. Never.

I wrote earlier that "killed" his e-mail. I admit that this is true only up to 90%. I still use e-mail, but only to communicate with those with whom I work (partners, designers, printing, etc.). More I react to the letter of customers (refunds, problems).

For feedback and comments from readers, I use Twitter, to communicate with his family (if they are far away) - Facebook (I'm not looking there a million "friends" and contacts I only have family and relatives).

Itemized why long letters do not have the right to life.

• Their time to read. I do not have time to read your masterpiece, and sending me a long letter, you are saying that it is more important than anything else that I have to read.
• Respect my time. You do not bother to edit the letter and highlight the most basic, believing that it should make me and there is an unpleasant feeling that your time spent more important than mine. In summary: I'm upset, but the essence of the letter and remained buried under a pile of unnecessary words.
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• Too many questions. It is not necessary to write a letter so many questions that I had to spend half of my precious days to respond. Ask no more than one, two.
• I will not reply. If you want me to read your letter right away or, even worse, do something for you, then you're out of luck. I, of course, not a diva, but I have things to do. And to each letter can not reach. After all, a lot of them, not just yours.

Try to limit your letter to the five proposals. I use this method for 4 years and he did not bring. I try to write even smaller 5-proposals. If you need more - it means you have not decided what you want to say. Take a breather, to highlight the most important and stick to just that. Stretched by 8? Be sure to cut 3.

If you need to convey a lot of information to the interlocutor (the long answer, accompanying document), then place it on the Internet, and an insert link.