69: 5 Words & Phrases to Remove from Your Emails Immediately

Think about it for a moment. Where do you do most of your communicating for your work and in your life? In presentations, in one on one meetings, or in the hallways? Chances are you use email and text to communicate with your clients, colleagues, family and friends. Just about everyone communicates through the written word and they are writing and replying to you in return. Have you noticed that some of those emails people seem more confident in their writing and others you just want to tell them to get to the point. Already this week on the podcast, a few words on those squishy filler words that you may add to your emails that might make you sound a little weak. Those namby pamby words you need to remove from your emails immediately. I'm also adding five phrases you should consider chucking. Ready for the list? Take a listen. Hey there, I'm Molly McPherson and this week on the podcast I want to inject some confidence into your writing and where it matters most. Your email. According to Forbes magazine, the average office worker spends two and a half hours a day reading and responding to an average of 200 emails. I feel that if you're going to use two and a half hours of your day reading and responding to emails, you best write them in a manner to get to the point as quickly as possible. This episode was inspired by by my own writing ever since I started talking about filler words in my workshops and in my talks. I also spoke about them in episode two of the podcast, how to get a handle on filler words in your vocabulary. I've linked that episode to the show notes, but once I reined in my own use of filler words and the word write is my big filler word. But for others words such as like so actually literally, the ums and the uhs that make people a little annoyed when they hear them, those are called filler words and they're a form of weak speak. Once I had a rain on my filler words, the next step was my writing. I never paid attention to the extra superfluous words that I was adding to my emails. I found that I was more direct in the spoken word, but my emails were rather weak. So I'd say in the last year or so, 2019 was the year of polishing and paring down emails to get to the point quicker. Thus this episode, as you compose emails and documents and of course in conversation as well, you want to remove these words and phrases from your vocabulary. They make you look weak. And these are the unnecessary words that make your emails look weak as well. By eliminating these five words alone, they will help you become a more confident writer and ultimately a better communicator. You're going to get to the point a lot quicker, and I bet you're going to notice that people are going to get back to you a lot quicker as well. Here are five words that I removed from my emails to make them more concise and direct. Number one Sorry or if I'm speaking to one of my Canadian friends or colleagues sorry. An example would be Sorry to bother you. What why you need to purge the word don't apologize for anything because chances are you didn't do anything wrong in the first place. Now of course if it is an apology letter, then by all means add it. I've noticed that not enough people are accountable for their actions nowadays, so sorry goes a long way. So write it if you mean it. However, if you are writing the word as a hesitation to a question to get to a point, then it's considered weak and you want to remove it. Number two and this one I only recently was able to eliminate from my emails. I'd say within the last six weeks the word Just an example. I just wanted to see if you've received the proposal. Similar words are only and simply why you need to purge the word just downplays the importance of what you're asking. It implies that the person doesn't need to prioritize or or doesn't even require their attention. Eliminate it where you can I found in the last few weeks when I struggle cause I'll notice. I'll insert it, I'll take it out and I wonder if I can write an email where I don't have the word in there at all. Turns out you can. Number three Try an example. I'll try to get the document to you by the end of the week. Why you need to purge the word you're telling the person you are not organized enough to know when you will deliver or execute. Insert a specific time or date and stick with it. Something that I course corrected is I was not giving myself enough time. So now I give myself plenty of time and I deliver early. That's PR folks. Number four Think I know many people do this. I did this for years. An example I think you should ellipsis why you need to purge the word you are giving the reader permission to dismiss what you are about to write or say for that matter, removing think adds confidence and conviction. The last word Number five asap. An example I need this article asap why you need to purge the word if you need a Task completed within a certain time frame, then just say it. ASAP is snappy and rude. If urgency is needed, then say so. Giving a specific deadline is much more helpful then as soon as possible because this can also cause stress on the other end because they have no idea what your ASAP means. It could be immediately or it could be at the end of the day. Now how many of those words creep into your email? You too. And that's why I purged them. I was guilty of using all of them. Now onto the phrases. Here are five phrases to remove from your emails immediately the phrases that hazes the meaning of your emails. All right, number one. Any variation of I am reaching out, I am forwarding, I am wondering, I am writing to you because or I am just touching base. One of those I typed yesterday in an email and then I did backspace, backspace, backspace because we want to eliminate that get specific, choose imperative voice which is more direct. Number two, I hope you are well. That may be, but you have already lost me. How many times have you written I hope you're doing well now the only time in my opinion that you can slip in the personal entree into an email is the week of the holidays of the new year. So you have that first week of January, maybe the second week of January. By the third you're pushing it. But other than that I don't think you need to have any type of preamble to ask how a person is doing. Number three, please do not hesitate to contact me. I was guilty of this one for a long time. The cliche of cliches of emails, so unoriginal and perhaps disingenuous. So if you want them to contact you, tell them to do so. Number four is similar to number three. I thought I would reach out. It's too soft. You're baby stepping into your want. Be direct and clear and you'll get the reply that you want. Last phrase number five. How does your calendar look next week? No one will want to be on it. If you can't get to the point quickly, give them a specific time or date or week or time frame for them to schedule. If you want to uplevel it, have an online scheduler. I use calendly. I'll include a link in the show notes. It makes it a lot easier. And I tell people you can reply to this email if you have a specific time gives them an out. If they don't want to use an online calendar or I will give them a link to my calendar and they can just Go ahead and schedule it. There you have it. The five words and phrases to remove from your emails immediately. Speaking of emails, if you would like to receive my weekly email filled with tips to help you communicate more confidently in today's rather heightened environment, we'll say you can sign up on my website@mollymcpherson.com it's right there on the homepage. The signup is also included on the link. Mollymcpherson.com subscribe and just type the phrase in the email. Sorry to bother you, but I was just wondering if I could get on your email list. Speaking of phrases, let me read one from Apple Podcast Ratings and reviews for the Confident Communications Podcast. I thought I'd slip this in here. We have time. What an amazing podcast. Such current information. Love the interview with Sarah Weiss about Gen Z. I'm definitely getting her book. Thank you, Molly. Excellent work. Nothing to gut in that writing. It's direct, it's to the point. Thank you so much. And the person who reviewed it was Cop Vlogger, so I'm assuming that's a pseudonym, but however, the review is real. And thank you so much. And by the way, the episode, the Last Episode with Sarah Weiss on Generation Z, I received tremendous feedback on that interview because people don't think about Generation Z and once they hear Sarah talk about it, telling everyone that they are right on the horizon, a lot of business owners, a lot of people who are trying to reach that market got back to me either in person or sent me emails or have written a review saying that they loved that interview. Also, there's a link to Sarah's book on the show, Notes from last week, and I highly encourage you to get the book if you need to reach Generation Z. All right, everyone, that's all for this week. Thanks so much for listening and we'll speak to you next week. Bye for now.