There is a quote attributed to Mark Ardis:  “A specification [or a design, a procedure, a test plan] that will not fit on one page of 8.5-by-11 inch paper cannot be understood“. This is called “The one-page principle”.

Other than being a snappy quote, this is something to consider seriously. A significant aspect of the email overload people suffer is carried in the attachments; indeed, my first inkling that email was becoming a problem, back around 1994, was when a senior manager in my workplace had declared that he refuses to read any email that has any attachments at all. Of course that was over-reaction, but a one-page attachment versus a ten-page one can make a huge difference in the load, especially if you receive a score of them each day. A manager that can induce his or her subordinates to write shorter documents will derive immediate benefit both for self and for the organization. A simple rule like “I won’t read any proposal that is longer than one page” can make a big difference (there was a  CEO who was said to have implemented such a rule, though I forget who it was). So can a decision like “all status reports must be written in bullets format and cover no more than half a page”. And for documents who by their very nature require more pages, one can still demand a clear half-page management summary,

Of course, the benefits of driving a culture of short documents go beyond email overload reduction. It promotes excellent habits, such as being mindful of others’ time. And it encourages the keyboard equivalent of the classic “Put brain in gear before putting mouth in motion“.

If you manage people, give it a try!