'No, You Can't Ignore Email. It's Rude.' (nytimes.com) 255
Yes, we're all overwhelmed with email. One recent survey suggested that the average American's inbox has 199 unread messages. But volume isn't an excuse for not replying. Ignoring email is an act of incivility, reads an opinion piece. From the story: "I'm too busy to answer your email" really means "Your email is not a priority for me right now." That's a popular justification for neglecting your inbox: It's full of other people's priorities. But there's a growing body of evidence that if you care about being good at your job, your inbox should be a priority. When researchers compiled a huge database of the digital habits of teams at Microsoft, they found that the clearest warning sign of an ineffective manager was being slow to answer emails. Responding in a timely manner shows that you are conscientious -- organized, dependable and hardworking. And that matters. In a comprehensive analysis of people in hundreds of occupations, conscientiousness was the single best personality predictor of job performance. (It turns out that people who are rude online tend to be rude offline, too.)
I'm not saying you have to answer every email. Your brain is not just sitting there waiting to be picked. If senders aren't considerate enough to do their homework and ask a question you're qualified to answer, you don't owe them anything back. How do you know if an email you've received -- or even more important, one you're considering writing -- doesn't deserve a response? After all, sending an inappropriate email can be as rude as ignoring a polite one. [...] Whatever boundaries you choose, don't abandon your inbox altogether. Not answering emails today is like refusing to take phone calls in the 1990s or ignoring letters in the 1950s. Email is not household clutter and you're not Marie Kondo. Ping!
I'm not saying you have to answer every email. Your brain is not just sitting there waiting to be picked. If senders aren't considerate enough to do their homework and ask a question you're qualified to answer, you don't owe them anything back. How do you know if an email you've received -- or even more important, one you're considering writing -- doesn't deserve a response? After all, sending an inappropriate email can be as rude as ignoring a polite one. [...] Whatever boundaries you choose, don't abandon your inbox altogether. Not answering emails today is like refusing to take phone calls in the 1990s or ignoring letters in the 1950s. Email is not household clutter and you're not Marie Kondo. Ping!
199? (Score:2, Interesting)
199 unread emails? Not me.
I must be doing something right, or are they doing something wrong?
Re:199? (Score:5, Funny)
I've got over 31,000 unread emails. I must have some kind of super power or something.
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Super unorganized?
Why would you keep those all in your inbox? Do they have a reason to be there?
Re:199? (Score:5, Interesting)
Paying for email hosting + domain means unlimited aliases. A custom one for each vendor means I can turn them off when abused and I know who sold my contact info. So when Comcast sells my email address to T-Mobile I know they did it (and they lost a fiber connectivity contract - consequences...). When companies sign you up for marketing emails not matter how apparently placebo options are checked (most recently Overstock.com) I can delete that alias.
I will not unsubscribe when I never subscribed. I will make a server side filter that forwards anything from them to one of their live person email addresses though. They can turn off the spam or not, I won't see it. Why would anyone feel obligated to respond?
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Ha.
I block all .xyz, .icu, .stream domain mail. All of it. there are no legitimate emails coming to me from those domains.
And a lot of what I think of as 'legacy' domain blocks. .cn, which I whitelist case-by-case. .ru, .by, .rs, .ee, a bunch of others. I have no legitimate email form them for years.
outlook.com mail has become even less trustworthy than yahoo.com mail, and gets scored up hard.
And then my inbox is manageable. No more than about 100 per day.
My work mail, however, is my primary means of commun
Re: 199? (Score:2)
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How much per year and from where?
Runbox is about $20 a year with around 100 aliases and 10? Or so domains so at least 1000 aliases per account. Good enough to create spare ones at will.
Use a catch all. It's easier than monitoring all those individual aliases.
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Somebody sent them to me. Storage is cheap. Search is fast. I'm not going to waste time moving them into subfolders or deleting them.
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I've got over 31,000 unread emails.
Why would you keep those all in your inbox? Do they have a reason to be there?
Well, I used to filter away unread emails into a folder called 'unread emails', but then someone told me that is what the word 'inbox' means.
Ever since then I leave my unread emails in my inbox, until after I read them and determine which folder would be appropriate for that email to go into :P
Re: 199? (Score:2)
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Then you should create a "Won't Read" folder. You threw the baby out with the bathwater.
That would be even more confusing. All of my unread emails get read.
Not within sub-second times like the kids these days but certainly within the same day.
"Won't read" implies I am not going to read them.
It's the same problem as the person I replied to. It's pretty hard to filter something into a specific category before I read it and know what category I want it in.
I see no problem with my system that you guys do.
New emails come into the inbox. When I next check email I read them. I then reply and/or m
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What you are describing is not what the article is describing. You don't seem to be saying that you keep all of these 40,000 emails in you INBOX, but in folders away from the inbox. That's not the same thing.
To be clear, I keep every email I ever receive. They just get archived or moved to folders through rules. My inbox is only for things that still need my attention, and I keep it below 20 items most of the time.
Re: 199? (Score:2)
Correction (Score:5, Insightful)
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Well, that was convincing! Thank you for sharing!
Actually, I find that ineffective managers do tend to be the ones who don't clean up their in boxes. This may be because they don't know what is important and what isn't.
Re:Correction (Score:5, Insightful)
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- first, turn off the “ding”. Set aside time to manage your email and deal with it at those times, not when the machine tells you there’s new mail. Twice a day, once every morning, or more often; whatever works for you. But don’t ever be reactive when it comes to email.
- practise Inbox Zero or the 4Ds, or similar. These methods let you focus on sorting your email and prioritising it, getting rid of sp
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So you get 500 mails a day. That’s still an insane amount but hey, if you can clear that pile in 5 hours, that’s actually pretty good. What the hell is all that, though? If it’s all similar stuff like support requests, you might consider using a b
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Absolutely correct.
But we do need a little clarity here, not responding doesn't mean the email was ignored. It means that the receiver didn't think it warranted a response (for whatever reason).
Your email is not a priority for me right now. (Score:2)
Then Make Spammer Hunting Legal (Score:3)
If you want me to reliably respond to email, the first step is to pass a law declaring open season on spammers, with a bounty of $1,000 per head, and arm everybody in the world with shotguns. :-)
I would be thrilled to have only 199 unread email messages. In fact, I have 3,592 unread email messages, despite numerous attempts to blacklist spammers, bulk delete spam, unsubscribe from various email lists that companies have put me on without my consent, etc. The volume of garbage is so extreme relative to the actual signal that I've just about given up on email entirely. I try to catch important emails from people I know, but I make no guarantees. The odds of an email never even being noticed until it is too late are probably at least 30% at this point.
Heck, lately, the spam has been coming more and more from our own federal government, whose "We the People" website makes no attempts to validate email addresses whatsoever, resulting in some weeks getting dozens of "Thank You For Your Message" reports from an email alias that I have never used or given out publicly (same username, different well-known hostname). When even the federal IT department can't avoid being part of the problem, it's time to give up on the entire delivery system.
The same is also true for the telephone. When I get calls, unless the number is one that I recognize, I do not answer. Ever. If anybody wants to reach me, they can either:
All other delivery methods are on a best-effort basis, and should be considered unreliable, at best.
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I've been on the internet since the early 1990's. My email address is on a few websites. I pass out my business cards regularly. I never give this address for marketing/subscription purposes, I use an alias for that. I also had a Yahoo address set up for this purpose. I may receive 10 SPAMS a week.
I've seen people give their email address to stores to get their receipt online and then complain that they can't handle the volume. It's yours to control. You can setup a Gmail or Yahoo account for the junk or be
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I think the root of the problem is that once your email address or phone number gets stolen from any store or website whose systems get compromised, it gets sold and resold to various scammer groups for nefarious purposes.
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Um.
Yes it was.
Computer-mediated communication (Score:5, Interesting)
The whole business of developing etiquette from scratch in the age of electronic communications is interesting as hell. It used to be that people thought of email as a typical letter, delivered nearly as slowly as actual physical mail. Now it is merely the world's slowest form of instant message.
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Organization (Score:5, Insightful)
One skill needed for effective management is good organization.
An overflowing inbox is a sign of difficulty with this skill.
How hard is it to "archive"? You don't have to have a fancy folder structure. Most email applications today have an "archive" feature.
If you can't deal with it now, send a quick note saying you can't, and move on. Then archive the email.
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Oh, how about "These numbers don't look right. Can you tell me where all my sales are?"
Or the long chain of 50 replies about some problem with a note that says "Hey can you please look into this?"
My response to both: "Let's talk." Many times, that's the end of it.
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With webmail, I don't see the point in archiving anything. Just let it scroll on down. Leave everything in the inbox. All folder schemas just make it harder to find the email you are looking for later anyway because you have to try to remember which folder or tag you used.
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I don't use a fancy folder schema. Just "Inbox" and "Archived." In other words, "To do" and "Done."
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The ones that need attention get replied to on first reading. Or if I can't reply immediately, then I mark them as unread after reading. If they are marked as unread, then I will scan through them later. Occasionally I add a follow-up reminder to an email if it is very important but can't be dealt with for some time.
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This reminds me of a story of the postal service in Spain. A number of years ago, they got so far behind delivering mail, that they just dumped truckloads of it into the trash and started over. That might have worked for the postal service, but not for the people who were expecting mail.
Yeah, sometimes companies cut too many people. There are cases of dysfunction so bad that even a good manager can't keep up. At that point, it's time to move on.
I'm not ruled by my Inbox (Score:5, Interesting)
I read/reply to email if and when I want to. Same goes for text messages and voice mails.
It's my device and my time and I will use them as I please.
Re:I'm not ruled by my Inbox (Score:4, Funny)
How rude!
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Even for work? :P
Hidden agendas and co-workers (Score:2)
Make sure you have return receipt turned off on your email client. That way they'll never know if you read it.
I once had a cow orker who loved to bcc every manager they could, to prove how valuable they were to the company.
If I received one of these emails, I would compose 5-10 page replies including every detail regarding the email.
Sometimes I would include documentation from a vendor showing how wrong the original sender was in their assumptions and requirements.
Managers were quick to tell the original co
A Considered Response (Score:5, Insightful)
I don't think a timely response is as important as one you have considered. Once it is out there, its gone and you can't take it back.
With email there is some time to respond, not immediately unless it really has to be that way.
When people see thought in the response it's a good sign you've considered what they had to say.
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I don't think a timely response is as important as one you have considered.
It's far more important than one which arrives too late. Seriously some people need to learn to send a quick reply even if it's "Give me a week to get back to you" and then use the flag for follow-up feature in Outlook.
I've lost count of the number of times certain people have replied to me long after the window for their opinion to matter had closed. The sad part there is they've flushed themselves down this toilet of inefficiency.
Your email was late and as a result you completely wasted your time writing
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Some things are important to get right, and the deadline shouldn't be fixed. Late and past due deadlines are a thing for a reason. A game released without a rendering engine, or a player character model, might not be a wise move. Borrowing credit for a product, when you haven't even come up with an idea for the product might
Ignoring email is rude? (Score:4, Interesting)
I’ve got one particular coworker who often emails me a question multiple times over the course of a few months - even though I have almost always already answered the question in a response to her first email. She loses track, and rather than checking whether I’ve already answered... asks the same question again.
Wasting my time with pointless emails like that is far ruder than me not responding with a third or fourth or fifth email containing information I’ve already sent more than once.
And yes, when I answer a repeat I do append the first message and point out that I did answer weeks ago... it doesn’t deter her. She is seriously vapid. Many of us wonder how she has held onto her job (and no, none of the things which probably have popped into your head there can explain this one).
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"(and no, none of the things which probably have popped into your head there can explain this one)."
Leverage/dirt or she's built an isolated fiefdom that would be harder for a replacement (or management) to figure out, then it is to tolerate her ineffectiveness.
Quite possibly a slow poisoning might expedite a solution.
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Many of us wonder how she has held onto her job (and no, none of the things which probably have popped into your head there can explain this one).
If it's not nepotistic or sexual then it's probably blackmail-related. People who have things on people get to keep their jobs.
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Even better is when they quote the entire email chain that has all five previous answers to the question when they ask it for a sixth time. At that point, even if it's a "valued customer", I reply back with "You quoted the answer five times in your query. Please read your your email." Sometimes I'll be more diplomatic, but there really isn't a diplomatic way to say "stop wasting my time and just read the answer already". Depending on the specific circumstances, it will be accompanied by a "this falls outsid
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"I already answered this question. Please check your inbox." Is a valid answer, you know.
Further, I think it's the right answer. If this were an occasional event then it's reasonable to just answer again, or even to do the work of finding the previous email and forwarding it again. If this happens frequently, though, I'd create a canned response that says "I already answered this question. Please check your inbox." and send it. Make her do the work of searching her mail to find the previous answer, rather than doing it for her. Eventually she may realize that it's less effort to do that befo
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Ignoring email is rude and unprofessional; if a coworker is being rude and unprofessional, it is very reasonable to point it out. It doesn't excuse being rude in return.
No Unread E-Mail Here (Score:4)
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Let's all applaud ourselves for feeding and dressing ourselves too, this is important.
Let me also applaud myself for generally refraining from speaking rudely to strangers from an anonymous account.
Comment removed (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Common Courtesy (Score:4, Insightful)
As far as I know 48 hours is the default time period to allow for an email recipient to respond.
Will my inbox self destruct if I don't?
Honestly never heard that one and it doesn't ring true either.
The problem is that most people don't understand email. It's not a synchronous form of communication like a telephone, IM or face to face conversation. Email was designed to be asynchronous. This means you do not require an immediate response, if any response at all. People assuming their email requires a response, let alone an immediate response is wrong. If you're emailing me, you're giving me information that doesn't require an immediate response or maybe, just giving me information that doesn't require one.
Common courtesy is not emailing me about things I have no involvement in. The thing about common courtesy is that it isn't common.
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As far as I know 48 hours is the default time period to allow for an email recipient to respond.
Will my inbox self destruct if I don't?
Nope, but if you don't register an opinion within ~48 hrs, you will forfeit your right to complain about decisions made in that thread.
"I'm not saying you have to answer every email..." (Score:5, Funny)
"... you just have to answer mine. "
Comment removed (Score:5, Funny)
Oh yes, I can (Score:2)
And I can even add you to my spam-filter if you are wasting my time.
Wrong. Your mails are rude. (Score:2)
Full quotes. Chronological mess. 98% noise, repetition and footers with bullshit disclaimers. Basically unreadable. If you're not a paying customer, those go straight to the waste-bin. If you are a paying customer I'll reply tersely in the hopes that you will learn how email is written. It's not my fault that Mickeysuck fubared email with default fullquotes and people who were to dumb and/or lazy to change their settings in Outlook back in 1998 when this degrading of email etiquette started.
for managers (Score:2)
The key part of this study is that managers need to be responsive to emails. This makes sense in an organization that uses email to manage people. If your job is something else... then you should be spending only a small amount of time and attention on email.
Can't relate (Score:2)
Both my private addresses as well es my work email are at 0 unread.
I reply to every direct question from a real person I have some kind of contact with or who have valid reason to contact me.
I receive little to no spam. I make sure to unsubscribe the moment I get mail from any mailinglist and my anti-spam measures seem to be strong. Between blacklists and spamgourmet.com I seem to be pretty good at not getting much in the first place.
I will admit though that I'm neither in a management positiin nor do I hav
Should I say "hello" to everyone I see? (Score:2)
It would be rude to ignore emails from someone I have a close connection with - I would not want them ignoring my emails. Quid pro quo.. It is not rude to ignore emails that come from (for example) a mailing list or a cc: ALL.
In the workplace I have clearly defined reporting lines: up and down. Those individuals have my attention. For the rest, I don't work for them. Their issues are not my concern.
As for phone calls, the same applies. In the late 80's I w
Not paying attention to (some) email is prudent (Score:5, Interesting)
It's prudent exactly because "I don't have time to read your email." translates to "Your email isn't a priority for me at this time.". Technically I do read all my email, at least as far as the sender and subject, but the first thing I'm looking for when I skim it is "Is this email relevant to something that's one of my priorities right now, and if so which one?". If it is, that email has the priority of whatever it's related to and I'll get to replying to it when my priorities permit. Which means if it's a low priority item I won't be working on for some time, don't expect a quick reply. If it's a high priority for you but not for me, either you or your manager need to stop bothering me and go talk to my manager about getting relative priorities adjusted (in fact this should've happened when the priority for the item was set, that this is coming up indicates a severe lack of communication on the part of one or more of the managers involved). I'll be happy to help bring it to my manager's attention, provide estimates on how quickly things can be done and what the effects of shuffling priorities will be, but don't expect me to go upending my priorities without my manager knowing about it and approving it. Note: bug reports already have a (really high) permanent place on my priority list and get a same-day or faster response (if nothing else, indicating how long I think it'll take to nail the cause down and get a handle on a fix). Regular updates on progress and ETA from me are required and I rarely miss sending them out so be really sure you've checked your folders and there really isn't a relevant update before bugging me about progress.
Personal email I handle on the same basis, and I feel absolutely no obligation to respond to email merely because you sent it to me. If I don't respond it's usually because either I don't know you and your email had nothing in it to interest me, or I know you and don't want to talk to you about whatever your email was about (or possibly at all, depending). The exceptions involve things like my being in the ICU in a coma, and if you're close enough friends to expect a response from me you're already on the list of people who'll get notified about things like that in some way.
Yes, I'm an old codger who refuses to be nickel-and-dimed to death by people wanting "just a few minutes of my time". Time is ultimately the only currency we have, and I'm as careful with it as I am with the dollars in my bank accounts. My friends understand this and we've worked out a mutually-acceptable balance. Failing to understand it, in turn, is one of the fastest known ways to get put into my twit filter.
How about 20k unread emails? (Score:2)
My work inbox has 1700 unread emails. Personal email 20k. Most of them are not personal communications directed specifically at me, though. They are sales come-ons or ship notifications or email group digests, etc.
I wonder just how far from the norm I am? Do other people actually try to organize their emails or just leave them all in the inbox to scroll down like a social media feed?
'Incivility', indeed! (Score:2)
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Crime against humanity
If your job involves answering e-mails... (Score:2)
Of course a manager would have to answer e-mails, that's part of their job. You'd expect a programmer to program, which would include things like writing code and debugging, and a manager to manage, which would include things like answering e-mails, talking to people and making decisions.
So if answering e-mails is part of your job and you're not doing it well, you're obviously not doing your job well. That doesn't mean that anyone not answering e-mail isn't good at their job. There are certainly a huge numb
Email is for unimportant stuff... (Score:2)
My personal email gets unread for weeks at a time, I usually check it once a month to make sure that my bills get paid. Friends, Family, SO all use text, IM, Facebook,or plain old fashioned phone calls. If it's important, someone will call me about it. If I am am applying for a job or working with my Real Estate agent, then I check it more often. But otherwise, it's one of the last things on my list...
As for Work, Email is a lifeblood of our company. I work at a large company and everything, and I mean
Where have all your letters gone? (Score:2)
Where have all your letters gone?
Off to Facebook, everyone...
(to the tune of "Where Have All the Flowers Gone")
Communications have split into three:
- friends & family - on facebook, snapchat or whatever
- promotions and ads - in email
- official stuff - invoices, bills, formal notices etc - in email
There is nothing in my personal inbox any more that requires immediate answer. Google helpfully sorts the ads to a special folder to be ignored. I can then read & respond to official mail once a week or as
Volume x Quality = Constant ?? (Score:5, Interesting)
I remember this conversation with an older worker and it struck me as sensible at the time and very wise now.
Without going full "four yorkshiremen *" on it...
Some years ago people sent typewritten memos; you could get 4, maybe 5 carbon copies if you were lucky - any more and a second copy needed to be typed. Result: you thought long and hard about what was said, kept it brief , and considered exactly to whom you would send the message - every addressee counted.
Then came the photocopier - you could easily send memos to 20, 30 people (more involved negotiation with the custodians of the copier and/or negotiations with the stationery dept.) - people were less rigorous about addressees and the volume of less relevant and less valuable info increased.
Then came email - the cost of sending to hundreds of people was minimal; it was quick and easy. Whilst increased communication helps the 'signal to noise' ratio took a nosedive and we got increasing volumes of decreasing quality messages.
Moving on from that conversation, we have social media where absolute crap is broadcast to the whole world and kept for eternity - but the majority of it is inane, inaccurate, disingenuous and unhelpful.
Seems like we have an analogue to the gas law:
Volume x Quality = Constant
----
* Monty Python -- a classic sketch
Re: (Score:2)
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You are absolutely correct and I made a mistake - in mitigation, they did perform it at their Drury Lane show.
Amen (Score:2)
That non-significant share of colleagues who ignore your emails, possibly pretending they never saw it, are truly annoying. And I am not talking about spam here, but polite non-sociopath emails that are somehow important, in which there are specific questions or calls for action stated to the recipient - some times requiring nothing more than a quick response. Emails that if left unanswered means the project I am in charge of starts grinding to a halt.
Eventually after pulling every possible trick in the boo
It's rude to send them (Score:2)
99 out of 100 mails I get are pointless. And I'm not even counting spam. It's FYI, it's "just in case you might be interested" CC, and let's not start about all the "funny" ones.
Email as a means of communication is dead for me. You want to communicate with me, you use Skype (professionally) or Discord or Telegram (if private). EMail is something you send to me for archive functionality.
Ignore at your own risk, i.e. at the risk of your request being ignored.
What does "slow" mean ? (Score:2)
Old people... (Score:2)
Rude sender (Score:3)
An email is often a request that is all too easily fired off. Typing and sending an email is incredibly fast but the action required on the other end is considerable. And often the email is sent off without due diligence on the end of the sender, which is incredibly rude, not valuing the receiver's time. Often the sender will not even check their own email for the answer which has been sent time and again, but sender can't remember in short term memory so they fire off another email about "how do I do this again? What's the phone number again? Where can I find this again?"
There are many resources available but sender just thinks it's easier to send an email. It's like googling the human world to them. We've sometimes been so fed up we've even made detailed documents with the steps you need to follow and all of the possible contingencies but you can't find that either or be bothered to read can you?
So naturally the recipient would rather ignore the many requests and wait to be contacted through another medium, whether it be a voice call or in person, to follow through, as a form of vetting.
Fuck off with your shaming.
Managers... (Score:2)
When researchers compiled a huge database of the digital habits of teams at Microsoft, they found that the clearest warning sign of an ineffective manager was being slow to answer emails.
A manager manages. They are the interface between the working team and the rest of the world, they have to process email, it's their job. The manager is here so that the other members of the team don't have to respond to outside communication and focus on their own job instead.
E-mail types (Score:2)
When 99 out of 100 e-mails is spam trying to sell me something I will gladly ignore and delete those emails. Not all email requires or deserves a response.
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This nice Nigerian keeps emailing (Score:2)
random thoughts (Score:2)
That aside, I have found that colleagues who do not answer relevant work related emails within a day or generally not worth working with. It is just basic time management. I recommend "Time Management for System Administrators" all the time
I understand the catch-22, but I recently decided I will avoid buying
If you contradict yourself, I don't need to listen (Score:2)
It isn't. And?
So, if I don't think it's worth answering - I've read it and decided it's not a priority for me right now. Haven't abandoned my inbox. Shut the fuck up.
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Answering all emails (Score:2)
If you are answering all your emails then you are not doing any real work, AKA you are a manager.
This is the digital age's equivalent to a paper pusher.
Attention is Saturated (Score:3)
To the person who sends me 5 emails before I arrive in the office each morning, along with immediately followup "did you get this?" --- yes I'm ignoring you. I have other things to do. You send too much email and you're pushy.
Many times I don't respond to an email because I'm stuck. I don't have an answer to the question asked and my only response would be "I don't know what next steps are." And many times the problem takes care of itself before I respond or the issue is no longer an issue (only the important stuff gets done).
I used to work at a very large organization and the volume of email is incredible. People cc you just because. I would receive tons of email that was directed at no-one - directed at "the void." I didn't reply because there were 66 people on the To line - who owns it ? Not me. Thanks for the Notice.
But email to me I generally reply right away. Unless I knew to strategically delay my response because I was given other priorities. And I had a lot going on - so I only read email once every hour or so. It was like a FB/Twitter feed. There's always an update - so I batch processed email. Sorry that I couldn't Like your individual post. I have to prioritize thinking about your problem against my other tasks. Has anything changed in 50 years?!
And sometimes your problem just isn't important enough. suck it.
Email rules for the sensible person (Score:2)
2) Always use someone's PGP Key to encrypt an email message.
3) Always digitally sign your emails.
4) Return emails within 3 hours.
5) When requested to setup secure mail for an employee or client, do it!
6) Never use Outlook, it's a pile of crap.
7) Always recommend Open Source tools.
8) Always recommend a secure email provider.
9) Never leave emails in your inbox that can be sorted, labelled and filed.
10) Be rude when it's called for, never protec
Don't let Email run your life (Score:2)
I regularly switch off my email when I have to concentrate. Every few hours I will open my inbox - reply to what can be replied in less than 2 minutes, what I just need to be informed of I glance over and move to saved folder if I will need the information later, and anything which actually needs me to gather information and compose a longer email or hold a meeting etc i flag and move to a to do folder. Everyday I have a block of time to go over my todo folder and get as much done or scheduled as possible.
F
Re:What a load of garbage (Score:5, Insightful)
If you want something from me, send me an email. I'll read it during work hours, maybe today, maybe tomorrow.
If you need me to read it faster, send me an SMS. I'll read it in an hour if I am not sleeping.
If you need something from me RIGHT NOW, call me. As a bonus, you will know immediately whether I can talk to you right now and whether I now know about your problem.
Email conversation is slow, even if I reply you instantly, you will probably take some time to reply, which will stretch out our conversation (say, 5 emails each) to a whole day or maybe two days. So, if you are writing an email, then it is not that urgent to you.
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The point is that if you need something right now, call. We'll talk and maybe I'll ask you to write an email with the details, but normally the urgent matters (server is down etc) do not require that. And the conversation is faster when I do not have to type everything I want to say.
If you write me an email without calling, then I'll assume that this is not very urgent. The reason is that I may not even be in the office right now (and if you call me with an urgent matter, I'll call a coworker and ask them t
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I prefer phone conversation over email. Since email is high latency, I have to think of everything I want to say and then write it, sometimes including some simple algorithms (check this, if it works, do this, if it doesn't then check that) which may be misunderstood etc.
On the other hand, when we are taking on the phone, I can ask you questions (does this work? ok, try it now) and finish the conversation taking up much less time and effort than with the emails.
I sent an email. How long should I wait for th
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Half a dozen messages a day are where I need to spend my time, and there aren't enough minutes in the day to be replying, or even reading the 99%.
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The problem with email is that there are various kinds of emails.
Sometimes, email is directed specifically to you and you alone. This you must deal with.
Sometimes you are cc'd - these ones, you may or may not need to do anything with.
Then there are the mailing list emails!
Maybe we need something other than email. What we need is a system where you assign someone work to do, set a deadline and have it added automatically to said person's to do list. In effect, something like a bug tracking system. There sho
Re:199 unread messages (Score:5, Insightful)
An average of 199 unread messages and all of them unwanted newsletters and spam.
Get a better spam filter. I see a spam email less than once a week.
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There's nothing more annoying (in the e-mail world) than getting a non-response response to a reasonable question or request just to make it seem like the ball has changed courts. I consider that a big 'Fuck You'. Unfortunately it is getting all too common. Would it be that hard to just say "I'll need to follow up later.", and maybe even give a date when you might respo
Re: I'm ignoring this message (Score:2)
Re:Article summary and title (Score:5, Insightful)
Agreed. My counterpoint to the article - don't send emails demanding other people's attention unless you have reason to believe that *they* would want to interact with you.
It's far more rude to carelessly demand someone else's attention in the first place than it is to ignore such demands. Attention is a precious resource, paying attention to something disrupts what I'm doing, and sacrifices a slice of my life that I can never get back.
If you do email me, be concise: tell me what you want, and why I should want to give it to you. And do so in as few words as possible because every word I read is costing me a moment of my life. Show that you respect my time and attention, or don't expect me to treat you with any greater respect.