Email & messages21 categories
Ask a busy person for something
Emailing someone whose time costs more than yours.
Write a message asking for the thing below, optimised for someone who triages their inbox in ten seconds. Structure: - A subject line stating the ask, not the topic. - First sentence: who I am and the ask, together. - The decision they need to make, with everything required to make it inside the email. No "see attached", no chasing a link. - The cost to them, stated in minutes or as a specific action. - A default: what happens if they do nothing, or a yes or no they can send in one line. Under 100 words. No throat-clearing, no compliments that are obviously softening. If the ask is genuinely too large to make cold, say so and tell me what to ask for first. What I want: Who they are:
Making it yours
- Paste your own material where the prompt asks for it. Everything above that line is instruction, not content.
- Delete any rule that does not apply to you. A shorter prompt that fits beats a thorough one that does not.
- If the answer comes back vague, add a line saying what you do not want. Constraints work better than encouragement.
Outreach and chasing. Writing to people who owe you nothing, and nudging the ones who never wrote back.
Related prompts
Write a cold email that gets a replyReaching out to someone who has no idea who you are and owes you nothing.Follow up without being annoyingSecond or third nudge on something they genuinely might have missed.Chase a thread that has gone quietThree unanswered messages and you still need an answer.Introduce two people over emailA double opt-in intro where both sides should know why they are here.Chase this politelyA second nudge on something they genuinely might have missed.Chase it or let it go?A thread that has gone quiet and you cannot tell what the silence means.
Keep this one
Phrasery saves prompts with a right-click and puts them back the same way. Add this to your own library in one click.
Add to your browser — free