Responding to Emails in a Timely Manner

Photo courtesy of  David Castillo Dominici http://www.freedigitalphotos.net/images/view_photog.php?photogid=3062

How long is too long to respond to an email?

Are you someone who responds to an email as soon as it comes in?

Are your expectations in line with the length of time you take to respond to others?

Intel Corporation had done a study with 88,000 employees discovering that the average employee received approximately 200 emails a day with about 30% of them being deemed as unnecessary.  Most people who used to shoot for being an “inbox zero practitioner”, have found themselves with their face buried in their hands or responding to emails at 4:00 a.m.

Communication etiquette experts have commented on how to professionally respond to an email but not too many talk about what is the appropriate amount of time in responding to one.  Not too long ago, it used to be that you were expected to respond within a few hours or especially the day the email was sent.  Nowadays, many people are not able to even get through all their emails in a day.  It has been reported that employees easily spend 3 hours a day just managing their email.

There are a ton of “managing email” tips in books, online, and taught by productivity experts.  A consensus among them all seem to be to go through your most urgent emails first.  Hopefully, your sender has indicated this through their subject line (i.e. Response Needed by Tomorrow) or by red flagging it.  Other common ones are responding quickly that you have received the email and then letting them know when you will be able to thoroughly respond to it.  Many people find that checking their email just twice a day is easily manageable and doesn’t let email control their life, other people tell me that is not possible in the position they are in to only check it twice.  I pose the question, is it impossible or is it because of the expectation they have set with others that they are always available?  Have they considered setting and teaching a new expectation and/or methods of communicating with them in order for them all to work more efficiently?  In a study done by the Department of Informatics at the University of California, they observed more than 1,000 hours of employees and found that each time a worker was distracted from a task, it took an average of 25 minutes to return to that task.  Also, each employee spent only 11 minutes on what they were working on before getting interrupted.  How can you really expect to get into your “flow state” and be most productive if you are constantly being distracted by emails in your inbox?

WHAT DOES THIS MEAN?

You can’t control other people but you can try and teach them by modeling better email etiquette. 

1.  Be considerate when you send emails.  Can you address multiple items in one email or is it best to send multiple emails to the same person throughout the day?  Think about how much email you have to sort through and read.  Can you make your emails more concise?  I found this website to give some pretty good and short advice on responding back to emails.

2.  When sending email and expecting a response, consider the person you are sending it to.  Are they typically swamped with emails (most likely!)?  What is an appropriate amount of time to give them to respond to your email or let you know they received it (i.e. a day, 2 business days, etc.) before you have lost credibility with them?  We lose credibility with people that we assume are unable to manage their time effectively and respond in a timely manner.  

3.  Start expressing your expectation of timeliness.  Let them know in the email when you expect to hear back from them.   Tell them you will follow up if you haven’t heard back from them by the end of the time frame you have given them.

4.  Lastly, ask yourself if your expectations are realistic for others and  recognize and own the consequences for your actions.  My own  guidelines for responding to emails are following up with people ideally within the day but no later than the next business day (i.e. I get an email Monday at 9:00 a.m. and might not respond until Tuesday at 4:00 p.m.).  For me, I choose to not get consumed by my inbox, but I also am aware of the implications of not getting back to someone who expects a response within the hour (i.e. losing a potential client).  

Remember: Email is nothing more than an electronic memo……if you are looking for a quick response, the telephone and voicemail are a better choice.