Take a Breath Before Sending Long, Stiff Emails: Let AI Make Them 'Readable'
Thank-you notes, apologies, requests to business partners. You've written the email, but every time you read it over, you worry: 'It's too long,' 'It's too stiff,' 'Will this actually get the point across?' You edit it, and it just gets longer. Your hand stops right before the send button. This is a small drain on time that many executives face every single day.
Writing from scratch is hard, but taking what you've already written and 'making it readable' is a task AI excels at.
If you were asking a new employee, you would say, 'Keep the meaning the same, but make this a bit shorter and easier to read.' You can ask AI in exactly the same way. It's a knowledgeable assistant, but a new one that doesn't know your company. So, the trick is to add a quick note about 'how you want it fixed'.
First, 'get it fixed'
Paste the draft of the email you wrote and ask it like this:
📋 Ready-to-use prompt 'Please rewrite the following text to be shorter and easier to read without changing the meaning. Use simpler words and shorter sentences to say the same thing. —— (Paste your draft here)'
The point is not to have it write from scratch, but to provide your own writing as a draft. Your intended message and facts remain, while only the convoluted phrasing and heavy language are polished. You can then read the result and choose, 'I'll keep this part' or 'I'll fix this part'.
One thing before you paste: if it contains confidential trade details or customer names, mask those parts as 'Company X' or 'Mr./Ms. Y' before pasting. It's the same logic as not handing sensitive documents to a new hire without preparation.
How much easier does it get?
For example, let's say you are writing an apology email to a business partner.
In the past, you would choose your words carefully to avoid being rude, read it over and over, rewrite it, cut it because it got too long, add to it because you cut too much—and before you know it, 30 minutes have passed for one email. Even after sending it, you worry, 'Was that the right way to say it?'
If you ask AI, you just write down your thoughts as they come, paste them, and say 'make it readable.' A polished draft comes back in minutes, and your job changes from worrying from scratch to giving it a final look and polish. Even if the difference per email is small, they add up every day. The relief on your shoulders will feel completely different.
Going one step further: add 'who it's for and what tone to use'
Once you get used to the basics, telling it the purpose of the text and what tone you want at the beginning will significantly improve accuracy.
📋 Ready-to-use prompt (one step further) 'This is a thank-you email to a business partner. We have a long-standing relationship, so please use a tone that is not overly formal but still respectful. Keep it short, around 3 to 4 sentences. —— (Paste your notes or draft here)'
Just by stating these three things first—'Is it a thank-you, an apology, or a request?', 'Who is the recipient?', and 'How long should it be?'—the feel of the returned text will change significantly. Save the prompts you like as 'company standards' and from then on, just swap out the content.
However, do not take the output at face value
⚠️ Watch out for this While AI makes things easier to read, it may sometimes slightly change your intent. A 'request' might become as strong as a 'demand,' or conversely, an important point might be cut. Especially dates, amounts, commitments, and names must always be cross-checked against the original to ensure they haven't changed during the polishing process. Also, it might become too polished and sound robotic, losing your personal touch. The AI 'polishes the text,' but you are the one who 'decides to send it'.
The next step: When you want to make your writing more effective
Once you have gotten the hang of polishing your writing, please read on from here.
If you want to get better at how you ask AI for help:
If you want to grasp the main points of a long document before reading it:
First, do just this within the next 24 hours
After you finish writing one email you are going to send today, do not send it yet; instead, paste it into the prompt above: 'Keep the meaning the same, but make it shorter and easier to read.' Compare the returned text with your own. Just by doing that, you will understand the effectiveness of 'having it corrected' in one go.