A while ago, I saw this page emphasizing the importance of bundling your intent with your message for professional communication. Please give it a read—it’s a very important concept for the workplace. I deeply dislike it when people simply say “Hi” without including the context of their message.
Recently, I’ve started applying this concept to personal messages too. Asynchronous communication is hard, round-trip times are long, and text is an extremely lossy medium for communicating intent if you aren’t used to it. If you message me, please let me know the intent of your communication in the first sentence instead of being wishy-washy.
If you want something from me but think it might be too much, just ask! Perhaps it’s the result of working in a professional environment, but I’m much happier being asked directly for something than having someone socially engineer me into thinking it was my own idea to ask if they needed it. Time is valuable.
Also, provide as much information as possible! Please don’t make people ask you for details. Put everything into one message as concisely as you can.
“Hi! Can you help me with this?”
“Can I get some details?”
“Oh yeah… X, Y, Z.”
“Yes/No”
vs.
“Hi! Can you help me do X on Y at Z?”
“Yes/No”
Don’t waste time! Your life will be much better if you do this, and people will appreciate it.
Thank you for your attention to this matter.