Why your beautiful emails bomb

Sometimes it’s the tiniest of actions that make the biggest difference.

Like actually putting your keys in the same stupid bowl every time you get home.

Or cutting your sandwich diagonally. (Mmmmm.)

Today I have a very small but mighty action for you that you’ve probably overlooked.

Picture this.

You're at your desk with a cuppa, typing away on your lovely big screen.

Maybe a 27-incher. Maybe the full 40-inch cinema experience if your IT department really likes you.

And on that screen, your email looks glorious. Generous white space. Short, tidy paragraphs. Nothing looking cramped or crowded.

Chef's kiss.

You hit send feeling rather pleased with yourself.

But…here’s the rub.

More than half of all emails now get opened on a phone, a screen roughly the size of a Snickers bar.

And on that little screen, your elegant, spacious email turns into a solid grey block with an endless scroll.

Your reader (your boss, a client, someone you're trying to impress) opens it, sees the wall of text, and gives up somewhere around line three.

It's too much like hard work.

But fear not. The fix is stupidly simple, and it takes about ten seconds.

Before you hit send, grab the corner of your drafting window and drag it in until it's phone-width. Then read your email back exactly as your reader will.

Most people wince at little at this point. I certainly did, the first time I tried it.

So go on, shrink yours down and have a look. And hit reply and tell me: did you wince too?!