Browse the docs
Email Drafting
Last updated: October 29, 2026
When an email arrives that needs an answer, timelit writes a reply draft in your tone. By the time you open Outlook, the answer is already waiting in your drafts folder. You review, adjust if needed, and send.
Why we built this
Replying to email is rarely hard, it's just slow. Most replies are predictable: confirm something, answer a known question, forward to the right person, politely decline. The thinking takes seconds; the typing takes minutes. We wanted to flip that ratio: timelit does the typing, you do the deciding.
And deliberately: timelit never sends anything by itself. A draft is a proposal. The send button stays yours. That's the difference between an assistant and a liability.
How it works
1. An email arrives. timelit is notified the moment a new email lands in your inbox and reads it together with the conversation history.
2. timelit decides whether a reply makes sense. Not every email deserves a draft. Newsletters, notifications, FYI-mails (anything categorized as Informational) are skipped. Only emails that actually require action from you get a draft.
3. The draft is written in your voice. timelit combines the email content, the previous conversation, your role description, and your writing style settings to produce a reply that sounds like you, not like a chatbot.
4. The draft appears in Outlook. It's attached as a regular reply draft to the conversation. You'll find it in your drafts folder or directly when you open the email, on desktop, web, and mobile.
5. You review and send. Edit it, send it as-is, or delete it. timelit never follows up on a draft or reminds the other person.
Special case, scheduling emails: if an email is about finding a meeting time and you have Meeting Scheduling enabled, that feature takes over instead and proposes concrete time slots from your calendar.
What timelit will never do
- Send an email for you. Drafts are drafts. Nothing leaves your account without you pressing send.
- Draft replies to informational mail. Newsletters and FYI-emails don't get drafts; they would only clutter your drafts folder.
- Ignore your exclusion rules. Senders, domains, and categories you've excluded never get drafts (see below).
Settings
| Setting | What it does |
|---|---|
| Create draft (main toggle) | Turns automatic reply drafting on or off. |
| Exclude by Sender Domain | No drafts for any sender from these domains, e.g. your company's internal newsletter domain or automated systems. |
| Exclude by Email Address | No drafts for specific addresses, e.g. a mailing list or a person you always answer personally. |
| Personalisation | Describe your role and what kind of email you receive ("I'm a CEO and delegate most requests…"). Drafts are written from that perspective. |
| Writing Style | Describe how you write ("short, direct sentences, no filler, always end with a clear next step"). Drafts will match it. |
Good to know
- The more specific your writing-style description, the better the drafts. Sentence length, formality, greeting/sign-off habits, even "I never use exclamation marks": it all helps.
- Drafting requires the E-Mail connection. A red Connect badge on the card means the permission is missing, see Connecting Microsoft 365.
- Every draft also counts toward your time saved on the Dashboard, so you can see what timelit actually does for you.