How long an email survives in an inbox
Someone with a crowded inbox does not read an email top to bottom. The subject decides whether to open it, the first two lines decide whether to read it now or later, and when pressed for time the reader jumps straight to the last line to find what to do. Bury the request in the middle of the body, and the email loses at one of those three checkpoints before it is ever read in full.
Order comes before style, then. What you want belongs in the subject, why it matters belongs in the first line, and when it is due belongs near the top of the body, so the reader can act without finishing the email.
Put a verb and a deadline in the subject
A subject like Re: the meeting or Question forces the reader to open the body just to learn what you want. A subject with a verb and a deadline becomes a to-do item on its own.
Narrow each email to one request
Put two requests in one email and the reader answers whichever is easier, then puts off the other. The postponed one never even makes it onto the reader's own to-do list, so you end up asking again.
When several items genuinely need to go out at once, do not split them into separate emails either. Number them in the body, give each its own deadline, and put the most urgent one first. Deciding the priority for the reader gets a faster reply than leaving them room to answer just one and move on.
Count the time email actually costs
Email is not a small line item. According to the McKinsey Global Institute's 2012 report The Social Economy, knowledge workers spend 28 percent of their workweek managing email. No comparable study has updated that figure since, so it remains the most cited benchmark in the industry.
A large share of that 28 percent is not writing time, it is time spent re-reading to figure out what is even being asked. Putting the ask in the subject and first line saves the reader's time first, before it saves any of your own.
Keep the background to what decides it, link out the rest
Background sections grow long less to inform the reader and more to justify why you are asking at all. Justification is not what the reader needs to decide. Keep only the facts that actually go into the decision.
Tables, quoted back-and-forth, detailed figures, anything that is bound to run long belongs in a link or attachment, not the body. The body is for deciding, the attachment is for verifying. Mix the two and the body turns into a verification document that nobody finishes.
Match the closing line to the situation
A closing that just says thanks is polite but carries no information. The closing line needs to say whether a reply is needed and, if so, by when, so the reader can judge exactly whether to handle this now or later.
| Situation | Closing line | Why |
|---|---|---|
| When a reply is required | A reply by Friday works | Without it the reader cannot tell agreement from a plan to look later |
| When no reply is needed | Just for your information, no reply needed | Without it the reader drafts a courtesy reply that costs both of you time |
| When you want to postpone a decision | Please take until next Tuesday to review | A request without a deadline drops to the bottom of the pile |
Frequently asked questions
Is it okay to use exclamation marks or emoji?
It depends on the relationship and the organization. In a first exchange or in an email carrying a request, it is safer to cap exclamation marks at one and skip emoji. Several exclamation marks in a row read as emotion, not urgency, and when the person asking shows emotion, the reader reacts to that first and misses the actual ask. Once a few exchanges have shown you the other side's tone, matching it from there is not too late.
Who should actually be on Cc?
Only the people who are part of the decision or accountable for the outcome. Adding someone out of habit because it might be nice for them to know forces the recipient to first figure out whether they are even expected to respond. If you just want to keep someone informed, a line like sharing this for your awareness at the end of the body does the job more clearly than a Cc line. The more names on Cc, the more room there is for everyone to assume someone else will answer.
Why send an email when a quick chat message would do?
Send an email when the outcome might need to be checked again later: approvals, schedule changes, anything several people need to see the same version of. A chat thread disappears after a few scrolls, an email can be searched back up, and it keeps a record of who agreed to what and when. If the question only needs an answer right now and nothing after that, chat is the better tool. The test is not the format, it is whether this request will need to serve as evidence later.