Lists in Emails Are a Good Thing

While emailing back and forth with one of my bridesmaids, I've found that we put off writing sometimes: it just seems like too much work to tackle a whole email.

Does that ever happen to you? I'll bet it does! I can't be the only one out here...

Anyway, the other day she shot me what she called me a "quick" email because she was in a hurry and gave a list of three things that I should know: she'd ordered her dress, she'd submitted her application to grad school, and that the first Sonic in Wisconsin opened up a block from her apartment.

Short, sweet, but it told me so much. And it was fun to read. And I replied quickly.

Not that every email would work as a list, but I think that it'd be worth looking into if you just need a little motivation. Here's one that I sent to her this morning as a sample:

"Goooooood morning!

Since you gave me a list, I thought I'd give you my own:

1. I'm making grilled cheese for breakfast this morning. I live on the wild side.

2. I am hoping to visit Madison over the second weekend in March; if you're going to be around, I'd like to spend Friday and part of Saturday with you, then Saturday and Sunday morning with my friend Cali. I would have liked to devoted a whole weekend to each of you, but you guys have spring break after that and then we're getting close to Easter and after that I'm probably going to be up to my neck in wedding plans--not that that's a bad thing.

3. My brother failed his driving test; he didn't get over quickly enough to make a left turn when the guy asked. But he got his braces off, so he's pretty pumped.

4. Jay goes down to Iowa on Thursday for grad school interviews. Eep! But we're really excited and it's sounding less and less formal all the time, so he's more relaxed about the whole thing.

5. I miss you! Downtown is just blah by lonesome!

6. Have a wonderful day!

---Marian"

See? Easy peasy, lemon squeasy! Ooops...just realized I missed "my" in #5, which leads me to my next point: always copyedit!