TL;DR – To have your message received, it must be read. These six tips will make sure that your messages are heard by recipients.

Text, email, and posts on social media are how we send and receive most of our messages today. We scan and read quickly. Do we take it all in? Mostly, but not always. When we receive lengthy emails, we read the opening paragraph and once we see how long the message is, we tend to scroll through to pick up the highlights (and now many servers offer AI summaries). The same is true with our social media posts.

We don’t always think about the messages we send in the same way, but the receivers do. Our communications with administrators and teachers are very important to us and too often we pack too much into them. The challenge is to be more succinct but also improve the look of the messages so they get read, and we get the desired results.

John Millen shows you how to achieve that goal in TL;DR: Be More Clear and Concise. (For those like me who are unaware of the abbreviation, TL;DR means “too long, didn’t read.) His guidance will ensure that your messages are not tagged that way.

Here are his 6 tips:

1. Start with the purpose up front – You want to grab the reader’s interest. Clearly share the purpose and focus of your message is at the beginning. It’s something I strive to do in these  blogs.
2. Use structure to your advantage – Bullet points, bolds, and italics along with number lists and short paragraphs draw a reader’s eye and help hold their interest. Long blocks of texts make people scroll faster, especially on smaller devices. Here I always have ways for you to see the important points quickly and keep most paragraphs to no more than three sentences.
3. Prioritize the most important information – Whatever is most important, put it first. Millen says to think about the main idea or required reaction, why it’s important now, and what the reader needs to do next. By guiding the receiver through the key points they move through the contents and retain it. And if they rush to the end – the didn’t miss the most important parts.
4. Anticipate reader questions – Millen observes that “great communication isn’t just about telling; it’s about answering.” Until seeing this blog, you might not have thought that your message structure was why you weren’t getting responses. The opening paragraphs hopefully answered that question for you.
5.  Edit relentlessly – Consider your sentence length. Is the sequence logical? Could I use a better word? Have you slipped into jargon or are you using acronyms the reader might not know? Don’t give them a reason to stop reading. Keep them engaged.
6. End with a call to action or key takeaway – Don’t leave your reader wondering what they should do next. Be clear: respond, call, set up a meeting? Is there a final point you want to drive home? Reiterate it at the end to make a strong lasting impression.

Leaders need to be clear communicators in all the ways they look to get their message across. Your messages are too important for them to be regarded as TL:DR. Keep these six tips in mind as your prepare your next one so you get maximum impact.