Here’s the TL;DR of this chapter: put the important points of any long message near the top.
Now that I followed my own advice in this chapter, here’s the deep dive into it. Be warned, however, that this is a criticism that clients and friends of mine have given me many times, and it has taken me a bit too long to correct. Of all my tips and suggestions, I share with everyone, this is probably one of those that I follow the least myself. Of course, I still do follow this rule, just not as much as I should.
Specifically, the accusation I’ve gotten—which is both true and has come from a place of support—too many times is this: “Morgan, you write detailed and context-rich messages that are great. I often don’t have the time to read them fully and I trust you, so I just skim them, and this leads me to sometimes miss the main point.”
Often that same sentiment is expressed in much more blunt and direct terms, “Morgan. You should have put the key point at the start because I missed it, and had I realized that, I would have made Really Important Decision a bit differently.” Oh, man!
Here’s the thing to remember: your boss or client is your boss or client partially because he’s paying you to do work that he himself doesn’t have time to do. So, by definition, he has little time. So, by definition, he probably won’t read all the context you give him.
And yes, I’ve argued many times in this series, giving context is super important. You still have to, for the many reasons I’ve discussed in other chapters in this series, so they can guide you better, and to cover yourself if things go wrong. And this is important even if you know he’s just not going to read it.
Should you call it out as an explicit “Summary” or “TL;DR”? Maybe, maybe not. But a fair rule of thumb is to assume that the first two or so sentences will be read by your client or boss to any communication, and past that, with decreasing probability depending on many factors.
