How to Marie Kondo Your Words: 3 Word Tips in 30 Seconds

3 Word Tips for connecting better (from my new book, Word Wise):

1) Ctrl + F on the word “Just” and delete: A Google executive banned the word “just” from her team’s communications after she realized that striking it from a phrase clarified and strengthened the message.

2) Start requests with “Would you be willing to…”: Research by Loughborough University in the UK shows customers, family, and friends will be more likely to say “yes” to you.

3) Use the word “Laughter”: Researchers at the University of Vermont discovered that reading or hearing it makes us feel happier than any other word in the English language. I know I could do with some more laughter.

Bonus tip: I hate to say it is a word-trash lie. Stop hating. Say it.

There’s an A-Z of 400+ more pieces of word trash and word power, in my new book, Word Wise, out now.

Here’s the rear-cover blurb from the publisher (Hachette):

“An eye-opening guide on how we talk and write to one another, Word Wise explores 400+ of the most common cases of word trash (filler words, hyperbole, and abstractions) and word power (verbs of action, ear candy, onomatopoeia). Examining social media, the language of Donald Trump, AI language research, and…