My Email System
Bottom Line Up Front (BLUF): This is the first of several posts about the system for better email and text messaging communication that I published in “How to: Become an Email Ninja.” These posts provide highlights from the book. The book describes practices, strategies, and tools for using email to get what you want faster and more consistently. The ideas are packaged in a system using the acronym PAASTUB to make it easier to remember and use.
First, what’s a BLUF? I will cover this idea in more detail in a future post. In essence, BLUF is a term I learned in the Navy. It stands for "Bottom Line Up Front” and conveys the core idea of the message (the Bottom Line), including action, in just a few sentences at the top of an email (Up Front).
How to: Become an Email Ninja is particularly well-suited to address the needs of people just entering the workforce and businesses struggling with the explosive growth in teleworking. It teaches readers *how to think* about messaging, not how to send messages. It merges the best advice for business communication with the author’s deep insight into content framing based on 30 years of experience in small and large organizations. It is a systematic, integrated, and easily understandable approach for improving your email effectiveness by focusing on the people who have to read what you write.
Email and text messaging are ubiquitous. Yet a serious gap in organizational effectiveness results from the common tendency to teach people how to *send* emails, not how to design them. I use the word “design” on purpose: good communication results from design thinking, not putting text in windows on your screen. Too many people get seduced by the dark side of messaging: informality and speed. They dash off ill-considered, poorly organized, stream of consciousness messages without a second thought about the problems this creates for recipients. Then they wonder why they don’t get replies!
How to: Become an Email Ninja breaks my system for writing better emails into seven steps made more memorable by using the acronym PAASTUB. This is a reference to the payoff that results from communicating better. The seven steps are:
(P)urpose. Know the type of email you are sending before you start writing the message. Everything you write must support your purpose. Most email falls into four types:
Announcing or inviting people to a meeting
Setting up a meeting with actions and agendas
Action or information needed from someone
Giving information without action
(A)ction. What do you need done? Who has the action? When do you want it? If there is more than one action, collect all of them after the BLUF.
(A)udience. Who needs to receive your email to accomplish your purpose? DO NOT reply to all unless it is absolutely necessary. I will make this clearer in a separate post.
(S)ubject. Make the subject of your email compelling AND short. Use humor and irony whenever you can.
(T)ake Out the Trash. Remove all signatures, disclaimers, greetings (“Dear All”), warnings, and email addresses from prior forwards. Leave nothing to distract people from getting the information they need quickly. Leave nothing that could distract from what you need to communicate
(U)gly Remarks Edited. Delete or edit all harsh language or strong criticism, even if you were not the source.
(B)LUF. Even if you wrote one, review the BLUF to be sure it aligns with the purpose of the message, the content, and the subject you used. Adjust all three as necessary to align them for maximum impact.
In the book, I reject gimmicky, unrealistic goals like having zero messages in your inbox. Instead, I guide readers step-by-step through my system for managing reader attention to provide just what recipients need to understand and respond. Regardless of the applications you use, you will get what you need faster using the Email Ninja skills because your emails will focus like laser beams on the action YOU want and package it in a way most useful to your readers. The book includes checklist reminders for the main ideas and a sample email etiquette guide that can be easily adapted for different organizations.
The posts in this series will go through each of the seven steps of better email, starting with Purpose is Clear. For more details and a full explanation of each of the seven steps, consider purchasing my book “How to: Become an Email Ninja,” $9.99 for the Kindle edition. The next post will summarize Step 1 of the PAASTUB process: Purpose is Clear.