Set up an anniversary email that sends automatically every year
How to make an anniversary email recur yearly, arrive at the right hour, and still read like you wrote it that morning.
Anniversaries are harder than birthdays. Nobody else reminds you. There is no group chat filling up with cake emojis. It is just the two of you, and one of you is expected to remember.
A reminder helps until the reminder goes off while you are in a meeting. What actually works is removing the send from your hands.
What a good yearly anniversary email needs
- The right date, every year, without re-entering it.
- The number of years, said naturally. 'Seven years' beats 'Happy anniversary!'
- Something specific. Where you met, the terrible first apartment, the thing they still do that makes you laugh.
- Delivery in the morning, in their timezone, from your address.
The setup, once
In DontRemember you add your partner as a person: name, email, and the anniversary with the year you got married or got together. The year is what lets the email say 'nine years' next time and 'ten years' the year after without you touching it. Then you add a handful of facts. Not a biography. Three or four true, small things: 'proposed at a petrol station because I couldn't wait', 'still steals my hoodies', 'makes a ridiculous face when she wins at cards'.
Pick a tone. Romantic, Warm, Funny and Heartfelt suit anniversaries. Playful works if that is how you actually talk to each other.
What happens each year
The night before, a draft is written from your facts and tone and emailed to you as a heads-up. Read it over coffee. Edit a line if you want, or hit Regenerate with a note like 'mention the trip to Lisbon'. If you do nothing, it sends at 8 AM their time from your Gmail. Then you get a confirmation with what went out.
It is not a substitute for the dinner. It is the thing that makes sure the day starts right even when the week is a mess.
Why not just a calendar reminder?
A calendar reminder tells you that you have a task. On a busy morning that task gets postponed to lunch, then to the evening, then becomes 'happy anniversary!!' typed with one thumb. Automating the send means the email is done before you wake up, and the day is yours for the parts that should be in person.