I have a different but related rule for emails: Only one important thing per email and it has to be as close to the top as possible. If you're sending a list of

I have a different but related rule for emails: Only one important thing per email and it has to be as close to the top as possible. If you're sending a list of questions, put them in priority order and don't be surprised if only the first one gets answered. Also avoid making statements on anything debatable if focusing on that will give them an excuse to ignore the rest. For example I was talking to my doctor's office asking if they could move my appointment to some time in the next two weeks rather than the 15th (8 weeks away at the time). The response I got was, "Your appointment is on the 12th." And then they stopped responding.