How to Write the Perfect Standard Email
If you get a lot of emails that deserve at least a cursory response, you might think that no letter form email can replace all of them. Here’s a clever solution borrowed from science fiction writer Robert Heinlein.
Artist and mastermind Austin Cleon has collected stock opt-outs from famous people and organizations . Some are short and disarming; E.B. White once resigned his membership on a federal committee “for secret reasons.” There was a very kind and honest letter about the rejected materials in the literary magazine Zyzyva . Some people, including Heinlein, have used a long checklist of dozens of answers:
This solution looks a little unfriendly in print, but it’s a great idea for email. Create a giant template reply list like above and place it in your Gmail template replies or wherever you can copy and paste. Then paste it into your answer and remove any unnecessary parts . Boom, you have personalized email.