PAASTUB Email Process-Step 1: Purpose is Clear

The seven PAASTUB steps are:

• (you are here) Step 1: Purpose is Clear: a clear purpose (outcome in mind) is necessary for effective email Step

• 2: Action: make it easy for readers to learn what you want

• Step 3: Audience: keep the right people informed

• Step 4: Subject as Art: make the content clear from the subject alone [makes the message compelling, even better when you can add humor]

• Step 5: Take Out the Trash: make the message easy to read quickly

• Step 6: Ugly Remarks Edited: keep yourself and others out of trouble

• Step 7: BLUF-ing: focus attention with a concise summary

This post describes step 1 of the PAASTUB (pronounced “paystub”) email proces: Purpose is Clear. In my book, How to: Become an Email Ninja, I provide the guiding principle that motivates each of the seven steps. The principle behind step 1, Purpose is Clear, is that a clear purpose is necessary for effective email. Before you can convey your thoughts clearly to recipients, the purpose of your email message needs to be clear to you. Before you open a new message window, ask yourself what outcome you want to achieve by sending the email. It’s a good idea to write this down on any handy form of paper, even a self-adhesive note. You don’t need to use complete sentences. A brief note is sufficient.

Don’t be surprised if your purpose for sending the message changes through the process of composing it. Many times, the clarity of your thinking about the purpose of an email message will improve through writing it. You may begin composing your email by thinking that you just want to provide information, but realize during the writing process that what you really want is feedback on the information, which is action. This happens to me all the time. For example, any email that asks readers to do something is an action email. Composing the email, imagining what the readers need to take the action you want, reading, and re-reading what you have written will naturally sharpen your thinking. You can’t really know what you think about something until you see what you have written about it. After composing the message, I strongly encourage you to re-read it a few times before sending it. This gives you another chance to revisit your purpose, find typos (of course), and think of better ways to organize your ideas. This is a normal part of the writing process, but neglected far too often judging from the tangled messes of text that arrive in my inbox all the time.

There are four basic purposes for sending almost any email:

• Meeting or event invitations and announcements (when you know the time and date already)

• Meeting or event set up (finding a time and date depending on others’ availability, providing information to support the meeting)

• Giving something

  • Information in the body of an email

  • Information in attachments

  • Comments on someone else’s email or attachments

• Asking for something

  • Request for help

  • Feedback on something

  • Asking a question

  • Action (by a deadline)

These purposes or types of emails may strike you as obvious. “So what?” might be your response. Since nearly every email you send will be one of these types, thinking in terms of these types will help you focus on how to construct your message (i.e., what you provide to readers) to accomplish your purpose. For example, if you want someone to take action, you should think about exactly what they need to take the action as quickly and easily as possible. Provide links to files, explain attachments you include, include meeting details, or provide a draft email that you want someone to send. Gaining clarity for your purpose for sending the email is important because you should use different strategies for the subject, body text, and addressees for each. I describe these strategies in detail in How to: Become an Email Ninja.

For more details about making sure your purpose is clear in emails and a full explanation of each of the seven steps, consider purchasing my book “How to: Become an Email Ninja,” a bargain at $9.99 for the Kindle edition https://www.amazon.com/dp/B086XMJJ75. The next post will summarize Step 2 of the PAASTUB process: Action-What and When?