To illustrate, I took a 7 email exchange with a colleague and dissected the information. The exchange went like this:
- I emailed a colleague with a simple request.
- He responded with a question.
- I replied with an answer.
- He emailed a 3rd person for clarification.
- He forwarded the 3rd person’s response to me with a question.
- I replied with an answer.
- He confirmed, and closed the thread.
I looked at this email exchange and highlighted all the new information, the redundant information, the sub-thread information and the completely worthless information. For all the text in the exchange, there were about 9 or 10 short sentences (6.81%) worth anything at all, out of the pages and pages of content. Continue Reading