Being Brief

January 16, 2008 on 4:04 pm | In Curriculum Vitae |

If you want to be even more productive this year, especially during times when you need to rush a certain project, it’s helpful to be brief. If you’re one of those people who just seems to ramble on and on about a particular thing, scenario or person, here are some tips so that you’ll be able to cut to the chase.1. Don’t be bogged down in details that don’t matter. Perhaps you’ve caught yourself once or twice saying something like, “I wore a red shirt, or was it brown, no I think it was red…” What’s so important about what you wore if it’s not an important part of the discussion? Get on with it and go to the next detail of your story.

2. Never repeat your comments unless one of your listeners did not hear you or if she indicates that she did not understand.

3. If the idea is not new to the conversation that you have. If it isn’t new, then you’ll only be wasting your time with these rehashed ideas. Get new ones or don’t entertain the old ones.

4. Try to eliminate some of your extra words. It’s important to construct your comments with as few words as possible while still retaining what you want to say. When you learn how to edit in writing courses, be sure that you apply whatever concepts you learn when you are speaking.

5. Speak at a comfortable pace. This means that when you talk, it is easy to listen to you. You shouldn’t go so slowly that the person listening to you begins to start completing your sentences because they’ve already guessed what you were going to say. Speak slow enough and fast enough at the same time. The key word here is “balance”.

6. Do away with the jokes. Try to take out the jokes that only you think is funny. Don’t try to think that you’re the next big comedian. Stop wasting your time because the rest of the people in the meeting might not agree with your sense of humor in the first place.

7. Eliminate redundant words and phrases in your speech. Examples of these words are “uhm” or “er” or maybe “you know” and “like”. Pause in between your thoughts and try your best to stop filling in the gaps with unnecessary words like these.

Get to the point. Be brief.