Email is where the day disappears. The good news: this is the single easiest thing an AI helper does well.

You don't need any special program. Open your usual AI helper (Claude, ChatGPT, or Gemini), and just talk to it like you'd talk to a helpful grandchild who types fast.

The simple version, in three steps

Tell it who it's to and what to say. — in plain words. “Write a friendly email to my landlord asking to fix the leaky faucet.” That's enough to get a solid first draft.
Read it, and make it sound like you. Change any word that isn't how you'd say it. It's a draft, not a decree — you're the boss of the final version.
Ask for one tweak if you need it. “Make it shorter,” “a little warmer,” or “a bit more firm.” Then copy it into your email program and send.

Try saying it like this ↓

“Write a short, warm thank-you email to my neighbor who watered my plants while I was away.”

“Help me reply to this email declining the invitation politely — here's what they wrote: ...”

“Make this email I wrote sound friendlier and a little shorter.”

A nice trick: paste an email you received and say “help me reply.” It'll read the whole thing and draft a sensible answer you can adjust.

One rule: never paste passwords, bank account numbers, or Social Security numbers into any AI. You never need to — a good email draft doesn't require them.

That's it. Ten minutes of email in about two. Once you've done a few, you'll wonder how you filed all those words by hand.