Sending Handwritten Cards

I love sending people short hand-written cards. I first started doing it after Manager Tools suggested sending thank-you cards during the interview process, but now I do it for all sorts of reasons. I’ve converged on 3 types of blank cards as being sufficient for almost any purpose: “thank-you,” “yay,” and “thinking of you.”

I find the trick is to make them really easy/mundane to write and to write it as soon as possible after the event.Whenever I aim for the perfect card, I invariably fail to send anything.

As always, the Manager Tools template for thank you cards is great:

{Name},

Thanks for {short desc}.

I particularly appreciated {personalize}.

I want {action for the future}. {1 sentence explanation about why it is valuable to you}

So an example might look like:

John,

Thanks for taking the time to talk with me today!

I particularly appreciated hearing how training your dog Rex helped you learn to be a better manager.

I want to stay in touch. I want to hear about how Rex continues to grow!

For sympathy cards, the Manager Tools career crisis email template works:

{Name},

I heard about {event}.

I hope all is well.

Please let me know if there is anything I can do.