s-t-f-u.com/no-context
"You free?" is not a message
You've asked me to agree to something before telling me what it is.
Between your message and your actual question, the other person has time to imagine being fired, dumped, or asked to help someone move house.
Every second of that gap is spent by them and saved by you. Close the gap.
Why it lands badly
It creates dread for free
Nobody reads "can we talk?" and assumes good news.
It costs a round trip
Two messages to get to the point, and one of them is a stranger to your calendar.
They can't prepare
If they'd known the topic, they'd have arrived with the answer.
Do this instead
Put the question in the first message
"Hey — can you approve the invoice today?" Done in one.
If you need a call, say what it's about
"Free for 10 min? Want to walk through the budget." Not ominous.
Greeting and question in one breath
You're allowed to say hello. Just don't press send yet.
When it's completely fine
It's genuinely bad news that shouldn't land as text. It's a real emergency. You're actually just saying hello with nothing after it, which is lovely.
Questions people ask
- Isn't diving straight in rude?
- It reads as rude in some cultures and efficient in others. Put the greeting on the same line and you've satisfied both.
- Isn't this just nohello.net?
- Same family. That one is about the standalone "hi". This one is about "you free?", which is worse, because it also asks you to commit.