c/general·Posted by u/lila_nguyen·1h ago

Why can I sit on a four-minute email for three days when the rest of work is fine?

There is an email sitting in drafts. It is four sentences. I need to tell a colleague I cannot make Thursday's call and offer Friday at 10. I have rewritten the greeting three times. I have checked their last message to make sure I am not missing a tone. The actual sending would take less time than the time I have already spent walking to the kettle and back. The rest of my job is fine. I file reports. I show up. It is specifically the small, slightly human messages that freeze me — anything that could be read as disappointing someone. A long document feels safer than sorry, can we move this. If you have a trick that is not just send it, I want it. What do you do in the minute before you hit send, when the kettle has already boiled twice?

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