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How to make sending email easier

It's 2015 and email has long ceased to be the electronic version of sending a letter. 

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An email doesn't need a closing. Sincerely, best wishes, thank you,  yours truly, etc. are superfluous endings to a conversation that simply tell your reader that you, email writer, are stuck in the past. You probably still use a pager.

Rebecca Greenfield at Bloomberg writes that the absolutely worst way to end an email is with the closer, "Best." This was once, admittedly, the go-to closing for me. But it's bland and empty. It means nothing. Here's Greenfield:

Happy woman typing on a laptop
CollegeDegrees360/Flickr

Fearful of coming off as too smug or affectionate, we’ve been bullied into using empty words. I made an (unscientific) online survey, and among my friends and colleagues, 75 percent use best or thanks, though many admitted that neither was ideal. “I hate best, but it’s what I go with,” one respondent lamented.

So if not best, then what?

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Nothing. Don’t sign off at all. With the rise of Slack and other office chatting software, e-mail has begun functioning more like instant messaging anyway.

It's true. The age of email as a digital letter is over. There's no need to introduce oneself or remind the reader who is writing. The email does that for you! 

Screen Shot 2015 06 02 at 11.43.56 AM
Shane Ferro

It's true! The email's form is designed to tell you who the email is from, who the email is meant for (if not just you), and the reason for the message. Repeating this information in the body of the email is superfluous. Given that most people working desk jobs send and receive dozens, if not hundreds, of emails per day, we would all be much happier if we just gave up on any writing that's not strictly necessary.

Curter emails could make you happier. It's not mean, it's for your mental health.

 

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