If you’re writing a professional document, The AdWeek Copywriting Handbook offers you this counterintuitive but fascinating and helpful insight:

In tests of print-document legibility, serif fonts (like Times New Roman, fonts with decorative loops and strokes at the ends of letters) win over san-serif fonts (like Arial, with no decorative extra strokes). And they win big.

In fact, tests find that readers have five times greater comprehension of documents written in serif fonts.

The lesson: If you want to make your document easier to read and digest, use serif fonts.

Have you ever read a proposal, sales letter or email and thought, What am I supposed to do now?

Don’t assume that, after they’ve read your document, your readers will know what if any actions you want them to take. Include clear actions steps. Some examples:

– Please respond to this email with your thoughts on the new campaign.

– Send me a few specific times next week that work for you to have a follow-up chat.

– Please email Terry and ask her for an electronic copy of the report.

– Call me at (xxx) xxx-xxxx to discuss how our agencies can work together.

Don’t write or send email while you’re in a meeting.

People are talking. Your attention is fragmented. You’re rushing to compose your message so you don’t get called on before you’ve had a chance to tune back in to the discussion.

Not the best time to be crafting a work-related document — and remember, email is a work-related document — that will reflect on your professionalism and intelligence.

We spend our workdays with our fingers on a mouse, ready to click away from whatever we’re doing to get to the next task or obligation.

We’re rushed. We’re bombarded. We’re reading three things at once. Actually, we often don’t read at all — we skim. Quickly.

If your document or email is too wordy, if you take too long making your point, we’ll probably move on. Unfair, yes, but true.

What do these things have in common?

-A cell phone display showing 23 missed calls and 11 unopened voicemails.

-A computer screen showing a half-completed Word document, 10 open web-browser windows and an open instant-message chat.

-A computer monitor with 300 icons on the desktop, dozens of which are partially or completely covering other icons.

Answer: These are all examples of digital clutter.

And digital clutter is still clutter.

As the great organization and productivity guru David Allen tells us, clutter negatively affects our productivity, and for several reasons. First, a cluttered workspace simply makes it more difficult to work and to find the tools you need when you need them. Second, clutter creates stress, because we know we should be dealing with it and we’re not, and that saps our creative and productive energy.

Digital clutter, I’d argue, has a similar effect. If you look down at your cell phone and see that you’ve missed a half-dozen calls and now have six new voicemails — any or all of which could be important — your first instinct might be simply to avoid all of them and put your phone away and procrastinate for a few more minutes of peace.

Plus, as you listen to your first voicemail, some part of your brain will be processing “Five more voicemails! And they could all be important! Hurry up — get to them!” When you get to your second new voicemail, here comes your brain again: “Four to go! Hurry!” How stressful. How counterproductive. How awful.

Same thing happens when you fire up your computer monitor and see a desktop screen loaded with files, icons, programs and images — all in no particular order — and you’ve got to hunt down the thing you need to open. Even before you begin the task you sat down to accomplish, you’ve already put yourself at a disadvantage by giving your brain a glance at all the potential loose ends and unfinished business sitting on your computer.

And now as you begin your task, your brain begins processing a constant hum of stress — “Need to finish that email message;” “Don’t forget to review that graph slide;” “Where’s the screen grab I took for Stacey?” And that hum of stress will stay with you as long as you’re at your desk.

What to do?

Clear the digital clutter.

Writing an email message? Clear your desktop of all the other stuff you’re not working on at the moment. Make that email message fill the entire monitor — so your eyes can’t wander off and spot something else you should be doing.

To your productivity!

If you’re planning to attach a file to an email, don’t wait until you’ve completed drafting your message to grab the file. Attach it as soon as you refer to it in the message you’re writing.

This way, you won’t hit send, realize your mistake, and then have to draft that silly follow-up message: “Oops. This time with attachment. Haha!”

My writing business, Robbie Hyman Copywriting, is on a GSA schedule and offers writing services to federal agencies. I’ve been writing for the private sector for many years, and most of my clients need help with the same types of documents — websites, articles for publication, press releases and presentations.

In talking with federal employees, however, I’ve been unable to determine what types of writing a typical agency is most likely to need. Seems the federal workforce writes… everything! So I’d love your insights. What are the most common types of writing that come out of your agency?

Please send me your thoughts at robbie@robbiehyman.com.

Thanks so much!

-Robbie

In his book Hypnotic Writing, copywriter and author Joe Vitale offers a clever trick for overcoming writer’s block. Vitale suggests you start your document — no matter what type of document — as a letter to a friend.

This is simply brilliant.

You’ve probably noticed that you’re funnier, more articulate and more insightful when you’re around good friends or relatives. When you’re with people who make you feel comfortable, you’re able to relax — and tap your creative side.

You might also have noticed that when you write an email (even at work to a colleague), if you’re close and comfortable with the person you’re writing to, you seem to come up with great points and insights almost without effort; they just flow through your fingers.

That’s Vitale’s insight. Writing an email or letter to a friend is when you’re likely to do your best writing.

So if you just can’t figure out how to start a status report, department memo, newsletter article, trip report — whatever — a surefire way to get going is to pretend it’s a letter or email to a close friend or colleague. Think of an actual person, address the top of the document — “Hey Damian” — and start writing to your friend Damian. Then watch the insights flow.

Thanks, Mr. Vitale.

Syndicated radio host Dennis Prager offers this insight: Writing is the mirror of the mind.

While many of us have trouble articulating our feelings on a given subject, when we sit down and write them out, we are often able to get our feelings across much more clearly. In fact, we sometimes find thoughts and feelings emerging from our writing that we didn’t even realize we had.

Prager advises arguing couples, for example, to each write their feelings out in an email, so that each person can read the other’s message straight through, without interruption (as often happens in verbal arguments), and without the heightened emotions of having the other person standing there, which can distract from the real issues.

I believe Prager’s insight can also help you in your professional life. The more you write, the more you learn. Looking for ways to streamline a time-consuming task at work? Write out your current process for completing the task — in as much detail as possible. You’ll find steps that you could shorten or eliminate altogether.

Looking at the entire process on paper might also spur ideas on how to change the process to improve it. You might even discover as you look at your documented process that you’ve created an effective template for getting things done, which you can then apply to other tasks you do regularly and for which you don’t have a good working process.

(By the way, if you try to write down each step in your current process and realize you can’t remember them all, that’s also useful information. It means that each time you undertake that task, you’re spending more time than necessary trying to figure out your next step.)

Write a summary of your workweek, even if your supervisor doesn’t require it and you don’t plan to show it to anyone. Just do it for yourself. Writing up a detailed account of what you’ve accomplished each week can be a great tool for gauging your own productivity and effectiveness on the job (not to mention a great written record of your accomplishments come performance-review time).

You will also have a better sense of how you are spending your time and on what parts of your job you might be spending too much or not enough.

Another benefit of this tactic is that if you know you’re going to spend, say, a half-hour each week documenting what you’ve accomplished, you’re holding yourself accountable and you are more likely to get more done (which can also translate into results come raise and promotion time).

Writing more can also help you improve your professional reputation with your colleagues and supervisors. After a staff meeting that featured a lot of substantive ideas and tasks, take the initiative to draft a clear and organized summary of the major points.

If you’ve documented one of your processes as I described above, and you believe your process could help colleagues, send it around. We’re all looking for ideas to improve our job performance (or make our work easier or more enjoyable). Your team will appreciate your effort and generosity.

If your team is taking on a new project, offer to be the designated scribe for the group, the person who will document ideas, write periodic status reports, etc. This has several benefits for you.

First, the more you write, the more clearly you’ll understand what’s happening — the big picture — and the more likely you are to discover creative solutions and find ways to add value to the project.

Second, most people dislike or fear writing — and you might as well — so by offering to take on this often dreaded task you are establishing yourself as a valuable member of the group.

Plus, the more you write, the better at it you’ll become, and improved writing skills will always serve you well in your career.