Why email takes so long in the first place
Email isn't slow because the words take a long time to type. It's slow because of everything that happens before you type: figuring out what to say, finding the right tone, worrying if it sounds too blunt or too soft, rewriting the same sentence four times. That's where the time goes.
AI is very good at the hard part. It can take a half-formed thought and shape it into something clear and professional. It can take a draft you don't love and fix the tone. It can write the awkward email you've been putting off. And it can do all of this in about 30 seconds.
The result isn't just faster emails — it's often better ones. People who use AI for writing consistently report that the emails they send are clearer and better received, not just quicker.
- Drafting replies when you know the gist but can't find the words
- Rewriting an email that sounds too harsh or too vague
- Writing difficult emails — declining, negotiating, following up
- Turning bullet points into a clear, professional message
- Shortening long emails to their essential point
- Writing the same type of email over and over (intro, follow-up, etc.)
- Reading the relationship and knowing when to be informal
- Deciding what to say — AI only helps with how to say it
- Catching factual mistakes about your specific situation
- Anything where the exact phrasing matters legally
Six techniques that actually work
1. Bullet-to-email: your fastest daily habit
Instead of staring at a blank compose window, jot down 3–5 bullet points of what you want to say. Then hand those bullets to AI and ask it to write the email. You spend 60 seconds outlining; AI spends 10 seconds drafting. Edit for accuracy and send.
This one habit alone cuts most people's email time by 30–40%. It works because you're offloading the hard cognitive part — turning an idea into sentences — while keeping full control of the content.
- [bullet 1]
- [bullet 2]
- [bullet 3]
Tone: [friendly / direct / formal]
Length: keep it short — under 150 words.
Don't use filler phrases like "I hope this finds you well."
2. Paste and fix: improve a draft you don't love
Sometimes you've already written something but it doesn't feel right — too long, too aggressive, too wishy-washy. Don't rewrite it from scratch. Paste it into AI with instructions for what to change.
This is particularly useful for emails where tone really matters: saying no to someone, asking for a late payment, pushing back on a client, or delivering bad news.
Rewrite it to sound more [direct but polite / concise / warm but professional].
Keep my meaning exactly the same.
[paste your email here]
3. The awkward email you've been putting off
There's usually one email sitting in your drafts (or your head) that you've been avoiding for days. Following up on an unpaid invoice. Declining a project. Ending a vendor relationship. Having a hard conversation. These are the emails AI is most useful for.
You're not outsourcing your judgment — you're asking for help with the phrasing. Tell AI exactly what the situation is, what outcome you want, and what your concern is about the tone. It will draft something you can work from in seconds, instead of the 45 minutes you'd spend avoiding it.
Context: [describe the situation in 2–3 sentences]
What I need to communicate: [what you want them to know or do]
My concern: [e.g., I don't want to sound rude / I want to preserve the relationship / I need to be firm but polite]
Draft a short, professional email that handles this well.
4. Reply faster with a quick summary + response
For longer emails where you need to respond to multiple points, paste the original message and ask AI to: (1) summarize what they're asking, and (2) draft a reply. This is faster than re-reading a long email carefully, figuring out each point, and then composing a response — especially when you're in and out of your inbox all day.
My context: [any background they'd need — e.g., "I can do the meeting but not Wednesday"]
[paste the email here]
5. Create reusable email templates for common scenarios
Every business sends some version of the same emails repeatedly: new client welcome, project kickoff, follow-up after a quote, asking for a review, checking in on a proposal. Use AI to build a small library of templates for your most common scenarios. Then when you need one, you just fill in the blanks — no drafting required.
This is a one-time investment of about an hour that saves you time every single week.
My business: [one sentence about what you do]
Tone: [warm and casual / professional / direct]
Write the template with [NAME], [COMPANY], and [SPECIFIC DETAIL] as placeholders where I need to fill things in. Keep it under 100 words.
6. The "make this shorter" edit
Business emails are almost always too long. When you're writing about something you care about or that feels complicated, it's easy to over-explain. Most of the time, the reader just needs the one key thing you're trying to say.
Get in the habit of pasting your drafted emails into AI with one instruction: make this shorter. You'll often find that what took you three paragraphs can be said in five sentences — and the shorter version is clearer and more likely to get a response.
[paste your email here]
How to set up a simple daily system
You don't need to remember these prompts each time. The most efficient setup is to keep them somewhere you can grab them in seconds — a pinned note, a custom shortcut, or a saved chat.
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Pick your AI tool
ChatGPT (chatgpt.com) and Claude (claude.ai) both work well. Either one with a paid plan ($20/mo) is worth it if you write more than 10 emails a day — you'll recover the cost in time saved within the first week. If you're not sure which to try first, Claude tends to produce cleaner prose; ChatGPT is faster for quick tasks.
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Save your 3 most-used prompts somewhere accessible
Open your notes app and save the bullet-to-email prompt, the paste-and-fix prompt, and whichever else applies to your work. Name the note "Email Prompts." When you need one, it's two taps away — not something you have to reconstruct each time.
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Train it on your voice (optional but powerful)
Paste 3–4 emails you've already sent that sound like you. Then tell AI: "This is how I write. Match this tone and style in all future email drafts." Save this as a custom instruction or the start of a saved conversation. Your drafts will start sounding like you from day one — not like a generic AI.
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Build your template library over the first two weeks
Every time you write a new type of email, use AI to make a template version of it. After two weeks, you'll have 10–15 templates covering most of your common scenarios. At that point, most of your email writing becomes fill-in-the-blanks instead of starting from scratch.
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Set a rule: drafts first, editing second
The biggest mistake people make is using AI to perfect an email on the first try. That takes too long. Instead, get the first draft out fast (aim for 30 seconds), read it, and edit where needed. You're the quality control — AI is the first draft machine. Keep those roles clear and the process stays fast.
The mistake that wastes all the time you saved
Trying to get AI to write the perfect email in one shot
The temptation is to craft a very detailed prompt and ask for an email that's ready to send without editing. This sounds efficient but almost always takes longer than just getting a decent draft and spending 60 seconds cleaning it up.
The faster workflow: Give AI a rough prompt, get a rough draft, edit for 60 seconds, send. Done. If you spend more than two minutes editing an AI draft, your prompt was probably too vague — add one more sentence of context and regenerate.
Also: don't use AI as a spell checker. That's what spell-check is for. AI's value in email is the drafting, the rewriting, and the awkward-email handling — not grammar fixes on something you already wrote well.
Sending AI drafts without reading them
AI occasionally gets things subtly wrong: misstates a detail, uses a phrase that's slightly off for your relationship with the recipient, or gets the tone a touch too formal or too casual. This happens rarely but it does happen.
Simple rule: Always read the draft before sending. This takes 20 seconds and catches any issues. The goal is fast emails, not unreviewed ones. You're using AI as a writing assistant, not a replacement for your judgment.
Get the full prompt library, ready to use
The Ask Patrick Library has a complete set of email prompts — for every scenario, already tested and refined. Stop building from scratch. Copy them in and start sending better emails today.
Join The Library — $9/moInstant access. Cancel any time.