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I follow a simple rule.

If I'm looking for a written conversation, I say hello followed by whatever I want to say next in the same message.

If I want to call someone, I say hello and ask them if they are available in the same message.

I avoid situations in between because they are usually highly entropic and confusing. And sending a single message works, so there's no need to fix it.



You can do better. "hello, are you available?" creates false urgency and stress.

Use "Hello, not urgent, please ping me when your are a available for a live chat. I have a complicated question about $topic."


Thanks, I will be applying that.


I do start with a Hello, followed by whatever I have to say in the same message. In addition I also annotate with an `<async>`/`<urgent>` at the end as appropriate.

It has seemed to work for me.




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