Writing Sensitive Emails Efficiently

Most of my blog posts are about experiences or something I have somewhat figured out.  Writing sensitive emails efficiently is not something I've figured out.

My default for decades was approaching this challenge by getting clear on what I needed to say and then writing... a lot.  While I wasn't efficient, I thought I was providing clarity.  I often was not.

In personal life, I would often support Andrew in adding some text to emails so that he wasn't misunderstood through being too brief.  But, he would often support me by telling me my entire message had been lost by all the qualifiers and softness that I had added in an attempt to be clear. Lots of cutting and re-arranging would often be needed. I could see the improvement.

For the last eight years I have consistently received feedback at work that I need to be more concise. I have really worked at it and I can now write a concise email efficiently as long as the topic isn't too sensitive. (This translates to more concision in presentations too which is delightful.) Yay, growth!  

If the email topic is sensitive, I can now achieve clarity too, but it takes me a long time... around a half hour per paragraph. (Writing a blog post like this including the editing takes me about the same amount of time and I easily write two pages in 15min for free-flow writing.)

In both work and personal life, it seems so easy to be misunderstood when writing an email that has no inflection or tone to provide clarity. In texts, emojis are my friends to make sure I'm clear. That tool isn't available in professional or more serious personal emails.

These are some of my first notes to self and gathered advice, but this is not a skill I've mastered. I'd actually love tips. 

Notes:

- Continue to get clear on the message first. (No way to be clear if I'm not clear what I want to say.)

- Outline a bit (What flow makes sense for someone who does not have my same context?)

- If I'm replying, note the tone and writing of the person I'm responding to. (While I still need to be clear, this can give me information about what they find clear.)

- Make my first draft less fluffy (It may not feel fully clear to me, but I know my tendency is to add too much and lose clarity)

- Edit with a goal of concise clarity (and somehow figure out how to do this faster through... practice? Other tools?)

I'd love thoughts. This one isn't getting easier for me as quickly as I'd like.