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Tl;Dr: the point of this post is that, after you’re done writing any long-ish email (or any other lengthy document), go back to the top, type in ‘Tl;Dr’ and then summarize the most important information in 1-2 short sentences.

WTF is Tl;Dr?

Shorthand for ‘too long; didn’t read’ this is the well established trick for letting people know the most pertinent information from what you have to share.

It’s like an executive summary for everyone you communicate with.

It comes from the almost universal response to opening up an email and being confronted with a dense wall of text: “Nope”. Life is too short. People move on to something easier to digest.

How did we get here?

Naturally—in a world of instant communications—a lot of communication we share is unplanned, often spontaneous, and written as stream-of-consciousness as we decide what we want to say as we write it.

There are two ways to fix this:

1. The long version: Sketch out, on paper, the main points that matter to your audience. Iterate and refine them. Reorder them. Try out different language. Edit and edit until you have a crisp, specific piece of communication.

2. The short version: Write the email you mean to send, then going back to the top and summarizing the main ‘so what?’, giving your audience a handy guide to what’s coming next.

Why it works: At minimum, you’ll save colleagues countless hours trying to figure out the ‘so what?’ from your email, making a few friends along the way. In the best case scenario, you’ll identify where 5-10 minutes of extra work up front could make the overall communication more concise and effective.

A few minutes spent editing and refining can save hours or days explaining what you mean and correcting misinterpretations. It also acts as a forcing function to test your thinking and what you really need from your audience. They will thank you. Your career will benefit.

If you start doing one thing new today when it comes to communicating with your colleagues, customers, or even your friends, make it Tl;Dr.

Got a better tip? Please share it the comments below.