Maybe it’s everyone, maybe it’s just editor/writer types, or maybe it’s just me, but I find that I have been spending a lot of time editing an email lately. Sending an email sounds easy enough. I need to send back this project or query an author or touch base with a client or get information out to my volunteer board. But that’s where I get stuck. I edit sentence structure, I delete content (will that read as funny or just confusing?) I change the format from bullets to numbers. Before long, a quick email has turned into a 30 minute project of its own. 

I’m not procrastinating in a traditional sense, although I’ve heard it said that perfectionism is a form of procrastination. I think my email situation is something else, more likely that when I send an email, it’s the one opportunity I have to be fully myself. I’m not reviewing someone else’s work, I’m not writing in someone else’s voice, and when all the masks are striped away, I feel a little vulnerable and exposed. So I overthink it. All of it.

I am so lucky to say that my calendar has been full since August. My time must be well-managed to maintain my deadline schedule. So spending 30 minutes on a five minute email has the potential to set me back. This past month, I’ve been working on taking the action to simply send the email.

Maybe you can relate. It could be emails for you or it could be something different, but you find yourself unable/unwilling to move forward for whatever reason. If you find you too are getting stuck at something, here are three things I do to get myself going:

1. 3 … 2 …1: I heard this tip from a Mel Robbins podcast from maybe two or three years ago. You start a countdown, out loud will help, and then blast off when you get to zero and take the action.
2. Send an email like a text: If I were texting someone, even for work, I keep it short, to the point, and hit that send button. Sometimes I remind myself that an email can be like a text, only with a bigger keyboard. I check for spelling and read it over once and get it out the door. It might feel like emails should have more thought given to them, that they can live forever. But I have a friend whose Marco Polo chats were subpoenaed, and who puts thought into those? So there’s really nothing sacred about an email. And certainly nothing helpful about one that languishes unsent.
3. Set a timer: my youngest is trying this out in college too. Her literature professor suggested she set a timer for one hour, write for an hour, run spell check and then submit. This keeps her from overthinking, adding in extra information around her argument, or spiraling (as one does) into a total rewrite. Sounds familiar.

My dear friend Jessica Stong is the absolute master of the single take. She made it a guideline for herself and business to not get bogged down in the perfectionism our glossy, photoshopped, post-edited world can demand. Instead, she does her podcasts and client videos in a single take — which makes her about the most authentic personality online. 

Sometimes, when I’m re-editing an already edited email, I ask myself … “What would Jessica do?” She’d send the darn email. 

For further inspiration, listen to this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w_DKWlrA24k The original audio was completed in a single take in the middle of the night.  

Here’s to sending the email, to getting unstuck, and continuing to finish 2021 in a positive and strong way.

Cheers.