You get to the office on Monday morning; your body is at the computer, your mind is still trying to scramble through Sunday.
You log on. Uugghh ... 200 e-mails pop up to taunt you. Several hours later you finally get around to dealing with other tasks.
According to David Price, the average middle manager receives 60 to 80 e-mails a day, and surveys show they spend three to four hours a day sorting through them. Many of the e-mails are irrelevant, incoherent and waffling, adding up to wasted time - and money.
This is where his company, One-on-One, comes in. The 27-year Hong Kong veteran, advertising copy writer and newspaper columnist was inspired to set up his practical training course for writing e-mails when he received a waffling, two-page opus a couple of years ago.
After listening to his complaints, his business partner challenged him to do better. Mr Price shot back with a three paragraph, to-the-point response, and his Write to the Point course was born.
The launch came in the middle of last year's Sars doldrums, and his early clients were pharmaceutical companies. Since then his base has expanded to banks, shipping firms and service industry companies.
'There are a lot of good professionals who can't communicate properly,' he says. 'People used to be taught how to write telegrams and letters, but no one has taught us how to write e-mails. Being able to use e-mails effectively is a need of our times.'
