You know the feeling. You need to send an email. You open a new message. You type "Hi" and then... nothing. You stare. You delete. You try again. Twenty minutes later, you've written three words.
The problem isn't that you don't know what to say. It's that you're overthinking how to say it.
Why Starting Is the Hardest Part
Starting an email requires making a bunch of tiny decisions at once:
- How formal should I be?
- Should I use their first name?
- Do I need a greeting or just dive in?
- What's the right tone for this relationship?
Each decision feels small, but together they create paralysis. Your brain gets stuck trying to optimize something that doesn't need to be perfect.
The Real Problem: You're Writing and Editing at the Same Time
When you stare at a blank email, you're trying to do two things at once: generate words and judge whether those words are good enough. That's a recipe for getting stuck.
The solution is simple: separate those tasks.
Asking your manager for time off
“Hey Sarah, I hope you're doing well. I wanted to reach out about...”
“Hi Sarah, I'd like to take Dec 23-27 off for the holidays. I'll make sure the Henderson project is wrapped up before I leave, and Jake can cover anything urgent. Let me know if that works.”
The second version came from just... saying what needed to be said. No throat-clearing. No "I hope this email finds you well." Just the thing.
Three Ways to Start Faster
1. Write the Middle First
Skip the opening. Write the main point of your email. Then go back and add a greeting. Often you'll find you don't need much of an introduction at all.
2. Use a Placeholder Greeting
Type "Hi [Name]," and move on. Don't think about whether "Hi" is too casual or "Dear" is too formal. Just pick one and keep going. You can change it later if needed.
3. Describe What You Need to Say Out Loud
If you can tell a coworker "Hey, I need to ask Sarah for time off," you can write that email. The problem isn't knowing what to say. It's translating normal human speech into "email voice."
What If You Could Skip the Staring Entirely?
This is what ColdCheck does. Instead of staring at a blank screen, you describe what you need to say:
"Email Sarah asking for Dec 23-27 off. Henderson project will be done before then. Jake can cover urgent stuff."
ColdCheck turns that into a complete email that sounds like you wrote it because it learned your writing style from emails you've actually sent.
Stop staring at blank emails
Describe what you want to say. Get a draft in your voice in 30 seconds. No more overthinking.
Copy the draft, paste it into your email client, tweak it if needed, and send. The whole process takes 30 seconds instead of 10 minutes.
The More You Use It, The Better It Gets
ColdCheck continuously learns from how you edit drafts. If you always change "Best regards" to "Thanks," it'll start using "Thanks." If you prefer shorter sentences, it adapts. Over time, the drafts need less and less editing.
Quick Reference: Email Opening Lines That Work
For most professional emails, these openings work fine:
- Quick request: "Hi [Name], quick question about..."
- Following up: "Hi [Name], checking in on..."
- First contact: "Hi [Name], I'm [your name] from [company/context]..."
- Sharing something: "Hi [Name], wanted to share..."
- Bad news: "Hi [Name], I need to let you know..."
Notice what's missing: "I hope this email finds you well." "Just circling back." "Per my last email." You don't need those. Just say the thing.
The Bottom Line
Starting emails is hard because you're trying to write and edit simultaneously. Stop doing that. Either write messy first and clean up later, or let ColdCheck generate a clean draft from your rough description.
Either way, stop staring at the blank screen. Life's too short.