Put the real subject matter — the point — and even the conclusion, in the opening paragraph and the whole story on one page. Period!

This instruction was written 80 years ago this week. The whole memo has only 129 words.

If you are in a position of some authority why not write a similar instruction to your staff. The return on the investment of a few minutes of your time in terms of time and money saved will be enormous.

Note: This post was inspired by a post on the Daring Fireball blog about this memo from the Smaller War Plants Corporation (whatever that was).