The Power of Less

A client, the son of the owner and grandson of the founder, mentioned recently that his dad used to keep one of those old-fashioned hourglass egg timers on his desk. If someone called, he would flip it over and when three minutes was up, he ended the call. The thinking was: You should be able to make your point in that amount of time.

If that gentleman was alive today, I suspect he would bring that same thinking to other, more modern forms of communication.

Twitter, while utterly useless, commands that you make your point in 140 characters or less. They have the right idea.

Emails typically get scanned, not read word for word. Therefore, strive to make your point in four lines or less. You'll have a lot more luck in getting people to read your missives if you do.

Introductory letters, while seldom used these days, were most effective when kept to one page.

The world that we live in today is operating at top speed. Getting a message across now competes with literally thousands of others coming from all directions. As if getting someone’s attention wasn't hard enough, making your point is harder than ever. As such, keep it brief, regardless of whether it is in spoken or written form.

Oh, and good blogs are said to be 250 words or less. This one, including the title, comes in just under that.

Get the point?

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