In his new book The Power of Less, productivity guru Leo Babauta presents a number of strategies to reduce e-mail clutter. One of his tips is to limit the length of every e-mail you send.

From page 81:

Another key to spending less time in e-mail but making the most of every e-mail you send is to write short but powerful e-mails. So after all the screening and spam filters, you've chosen the few e-mails your actually going to respond to ... now don't blow it by writing a novel-length response to each one. I limit myself to five sentences for each reply (at the maximum -- many replies are even shorter). That forces me to be concise and to choose only the essentials of what I want to say, and limits the time I spend replying to e-mail.

I've never considered reducing the length of my e-mails to reduce the amount of time I spend handling e-mails. For the month of January, I'm going to try my best to stick to a seven-sentence limit (I don't think I'm quite ready for a five-sentence minimum) and see how it impacts my e-mail routine.

(In addition to his new book and website ZenHabits.net, you also can check out Leo's free eBook Thriving on Less: Simplifying in a tough economy, his audio tips for focusing on one task at a time, and participate in his New Year's Challenge forum. Finally, if you missed it, check out Leo's guest post on Unclutterer "Creating a minimalist workspace.")