A few weeks back, we looked at Smart Brevity, a powerful concept documented in the book of the same name, which points out that the vast majority of communications are nowhere near as concise or to the point as they should be. Even though we didn’t come up with it, this very concept has created a lot of discussion here at BillionMinds and with many of you. Of course, if we are going to discuss this topic, we need to do it concisely, so in that spirit, here are our three most often asked questions about being concise.

Q. Do ALL communications need to be super-short?

A. Absolutely not. People choose to buy and read novels, and sometimes they are very long. However, when you write, always think with the reader in mind. In most (though not all) communications in a business setting, the primary purpose is to get information across. You want to minimize the chance of the reader not understanding you, and minimize the work they need to do to understand the key points.

Q. Should I spend extra time making my e-mails or documents shorter?

A. In 1:1 communications it may not be worth the effort. After all it is just one person reading it, and as long as it’s clear, you are not wasting much of anyone’s time. However, if 100 people are going to read what you write, it may well be worth the extra effort. Regardless, in many cases, a little extra time can help you clarify your own thinking, so it may well be worth it anyway.

Q. How can I get into this habit?

A three-stage process can help. Step 1 – in as brief a note form as possible, write down the things that your readers would want or need to know – not what you want to tell them (that is different) but you think would be important to them. Step 2 – is turning that into sentences. Step 3 is reordering those sentences to be most logical to the reader, and which delivers the most important pertinent information up front. If you start to write in that way, you will get pretty good at it pretty fast, and not lose a writing style that helps identify you.