The average office worker receives 121 emails per day. They spend about 28% of their workday on email. In this environment, your email is competing with 120 others for attention.

Most emails lose this competition because they’re too long, too unclear about what they want, or too easy to postpone.

Here’s how to write emails that stand out.

The Subject Line Decides Everything

Your subject line determines whether the email gets opened, scanned, or ignored.

Bad subject lines: “Hello,” “Quick question,” “Update,” “FYI.” These communicate nothing about urgency, content, or required action.

Good subject lines: “Decision needed by Friday: Q2 budget allocation,” “Meeting moved to 3pm Thursday,” “Review attached proposal - 10 min read.” These tell the recipient what the email contains and what’s expected.

Format: [Action/Status] + [Topic] + [Deadline if applicable]

Front-Load the Important Stuff

Most people scan emails. They read the first two sentences. If those don’t capture the key message, the rest might never be read.

Put the main point in the first sentence. Not the background. Not the context. The point.

Bad: “Hi Sarah, I wanted to follow up on our conversation from last Thursday’s meeting about the Henderson project timeline, which we discussed in the context of the broader Q2 planning process…”

Good: “Sarah, the Henderson project deadline needs to move from March 15 to March 29. Here’s why.”

Context and background come after the main point, for people who want it.

The BLUF Method

BLUF stands for Bottom Line Up Front. It’s a military communication technique that works perfectly for business email.

Structure:

1. Bottom line (one sentence)
2. Context (two to three sentences of background)
3. Detail (supporting information, if needed)
4. Action required (what you need and when)

This respects your reader’s time. They get the essential information immediately and can read further if they need more detail.

Be Explicit About What You Need

The most common email failure: not stating clearly what you want the recipient to do.

“Thoughts?” is not a clear call to action. “Please review the attached proposal and let me know by Thursday if you approve the $15,000 budget” is.

Always answer: What specific action do I need? Who needs to do it? By when?

If you’re sending to multiple people, name who needs to do what. “Tom — please review section 3. Emma — please update the timeline. Both by end of Wednesday.”

Length: Shorter Than You Think

If your email is longer than five sentences, consider whether it should be a document attached to a short email instead.

Most emails should be three to five sentences:

• Main point
• Essential context
• Call to action

Long emails don’t get read carefully. They get skimmed, which means your important details get missed.

If you need to communicate complex information, write a brief document and attach it. The email body should summarise the document and state what you need: “Attached is the proposal (5 pages). Please review section 3 and confirm the approach by Friday.”

Formatting for Scannability

When emails must be longer, use formatting to make them scannable:

Bold the key points. Not everything. Just the words or phrases that carry the message.

Use bullet points for lists of items, options, or action items.

Use numbered lists when sequence matters.

Break up paragraphs. No wall of text. Short paragraphs of two to three sentences maximum.

Use headers in longer emails to create clear sections.

Reply Hygiene

Reply promptly or acknowledge. If you can’t respond fully, send a quick “Got it — will respond by Thursday.” This prevents the sender from wondering if you received the email.

Quote relevant portions. When replying to a long email, quote the specific point you’re responding to. This prevents confusion in long threads.

Keep threads clean. If the topic changes significantly, start a new thread with a new subject line. Thread hijacking makes important information impossible to find later.

The Tone Question

Written communication lacks vocal tone, facial expressions, and body language. This means emails are easily misinterpreted.

When in doubt, err on the side of warmth. “Thanks for this — one quick question on the timeline” reads better than “Question about timeline.”

But don’t overdo it. “Hope this email finds you well! I just wanted to reach out and check in about…” is padding that wastes everyone’s time.

Find the balance: professional, warm, concise. Your emails should sound like you talking at work, not like a robot or an overly enthusiastic greeting card.

One Email, One Topic

Don’t combine multiple unrelated topics in one email. Each topic gets its own email with its own subject line.

This makes it possible for the recipient to handle, file, and respond to each topic independently. An email covering three topics will get a reply to one, maybe two, with the third forgotten.

Write better emails and you’ll spend less time writing follow-up emails. That’s the entire pitch.