​Here’s something that will immediately help you work more efficiently tomorrow: Master the art of the quick delete. It’s a survival tool in today’s world.
 
This week I attended a training session on how to improve your productivity. If focused on cutting clutter. As we went through the class, it occurred to me how many of the techniques I already employed, though I’d never given names to them before. It was just the way I approach work, much of it based on my journalistic background and how I was raised.
 
One of the time-waster issues that came up was emails. Almost everyone felt they got too many, and it was a problem having to read all of them. You don’t.

Instead, scan and delete. Read the subject line quickly. See if it applies to you or requires a response. If it does, save it or work on it immediately. If not, flush it. It’s a lesson reporters and editors learned right from the get go, probably in college or our first jobs – that you must steward your time and stories, focusing on the most relevant while tossing the less worthy into the trash can.
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Junk emails you get regularly (or plain emails from the same source that never provide you useful information) deserve the same fate: rapid deletion. You’ve now probably gotten rid of 80 percent of your emails and perhaps even 90 percent. If you are good, this process will take 10 minutes early in the morning to go through 50 emails.
 
If you get 150 emails a day, that means you’ll need 30 minutes to manage your inbox. You can do it. Practice this system. Set aside three 10-minute bursts to get it done. See how you feel at the end of the day.
 
You should be more focused, energized and productive. Unless you get 300 emails a day.  Then run for the hills.

​The English language (regardless of the country using it) is rich when it comes to the subtle tone of words. For the newcomer to the language, that can make understanding words and the meaning of sentences difficult sometimes. But for the writer it offers an opportunity – you can send the reader down a different path depending on the shade of the word you employ, and how you apply it.
 
Today’s world urges you to write, think and voice opinions swiftly. Resist the urge. If you follow it, you hit the boredom button, employing repetitious phrases that mean nothing. Your readers flee.
 
Instead, take some extra time. Pick a word here and there and find something new that makes your memo, report, email or blog more original.

Here’s something I’ve done the past several years. As I write, I think to myself, “Boy, I’ve heard that before,” or, “That sounds like someone has written something similar a million times. What can I change? What can I do differently?”
 
Frequently, what’s necessary is to change a word, make the sentence active instead of passive or add a juicy adjective. None of this is hard. But it takes diligence.
 
Respect the words you use and what they bring to your communications. They’ll respect you back.

​Often when I interview people for a story and they compliment a piece of my writing they’ve read, I mention this:  “The story isn’t compelling if the person being interviewed doesn’t have something interesting to say.”  The interviewer pieces it together, provides a foundation and pace to the tale, but the subject matter, insightful quotes and background must do something for the readers or you lose them.
 
That means you must elicit good material from the interviewee.  How do you do that?
 
The simple and quick answer is to ask them good questions.  This then implies, “What’s a good question?”
 
And, yes, there is a simple answer to that.  Ask open-ended questions.  Look at your notes before you begin the interview and make sure your questions are set up so the responder cannot answer “yes” or “no.”
 
A great way to get people talking is to ask “why.”  They explain something to you, and you follow up with, “Why did that happen?  Why did you approach the situation that way?”  See where the interview goes from there.
 
It’s fundamentally important if you are a writer/journalist/communicator that you have a curiosity about the world.  You should want to know how things work.  The first answer isn’t enough.  You want to dig below the surface and provide a deeper explanation.

That’s where the fun stuff is.  That’s when you dig up the compelling quotes and have the ability to construct a story that others read to the end.
 
It’s not going to happen every time, but if you ask good questions (open-ended) and retain your curiosity about the world, your writing will continue to draw a strong readership.