3 ms·

My inbox is always 0 shortly after I check it without filtering any emails that aren't automatic. No fancy layouts required. It really just boils down to if I

by nickjj 8y ago

My inbox is always 0 shortly after I check it without filtering any emails that aren't automatic. No fancy layouts required. It really just boils down to if I open gmail then I'm agreeing to myself that I'm spending whatever time it takes to address everything right now. This is coming from someone who usually wakes up with 10s of emails since I offer personal support for 30,000+ people who take my video courses. A lot of these questions are quite technical too (Docker / Flask / programming things) and require writing custom responses and sometimes troubleshooting. I do this a couple of times a day but the bulk of the emails come up at night since that's the longest period of time where emails go unchecked for ~8 hours. I wouldn't ever consider ignoring or not replying to an email from a person who isn't spamming me. To me that's almost the rudest thing you can do online. For the people who struggle with email, how much email do you get and what's the nature of those emails?

sametmax 8y ago
In my experience, people don't struggle with email, they struggle with discipline and/or method. End email is a symptom, like a messy computer desktop.
bo1024 8y ago
I don't know if I "struggle" with email, but emails often stay in my inbox for days or weeks. I sort and organize them a bit, though. I'm a researcher and most of my email is from frequent collaborators whom I know well, or automated academic stuff. Reason #1: Some emails I expect to not be able to respond to for some time. We're discussing a project and I need some hours to think about it, read papers, etc. before I respond. These threads go for months (with many meetings interspersed). Reason #2: I like email to double as reminders or to-dos (though I also keep a to-do list). So for example an automated email reminding me to review a paper by May 20. I won't archive that until I've done the review. (Edit: I like the idea of sorting every email when I open my client, if not archiving it. I just don't get enough email for this to be a problem.)
Alex3917 8y ago
> I wouldn't ever consider ignoring or not replying to an email from a person who isn't spamming me. To me that's almost the rudest thing you can do online. I agree with this. I realize there are some people who get literally thousands of emails per day, but for the most part it really breaks the social contract of the Internet. If I get email questions about blog posts I've written or videos I've created then I just answer them and then usually anonymize the person and dump them online so that other people can then find the answer via Google or whatever, e.g.: https://www.fwdeveryone.com/t/WT-4NHhJQiyCa5mbDOhuGw/long-reap-benefits-erg-training https://www.fwdeveryone.com/t/WT-4NHhJQiyCa5mbDOhuGw/long-re...
BeetleB 8y ago
>It really just boils down to if I open gmail then I'm agreeing to myself that I'm spending whatever time it takes to address everything right now. Funny. For me, this was one of the reasons email kept piling up - not feeling I'd have the time to address it. And then there was the other related problem: For most of my emails, I do not know how much time each can take without opening it. >I wouldn't ever consider ignoring or not replying to an email from a person who isn't spamming me. To me that's almost the rudest thing you can do online. It used to bother me, but I've gotten over the feeling. I no longer find it rude when I don't get a reply. However, mentally I do categorize people as repliers and poor/non-repliers, so I know how much or how little effort to put into writing an email for each category. The reality is that it's cheaper than it should be to send someone an email. I put in more of my effort to reply to well thought out emails vs quickly written one-two liners. For the latter, it's almost always the case that I'll expend an order of magnitude more effort in responding than they put into their email, and I don't appreciate the asymmetry. And also, a lot of people still get way too much mail - and despite what many here think, it's not all in their control. I'm not going to fault someone for not responding because my email got lost in all that noise.
jbverschoor 8y ago
What about emails/conversations that span several months?
- nickjj 8y ago
  It's no different. If I see a reply from those people I reply back when I enter gmail.

by nickjj 8y ago

sametmax 8y ago

In my experience, people don't struggle with email, they struggle with discipline and/or method. End email is a symptom, like a messy computer desktop.

bo1024 8y ago

I don't know if I "struggle" with email, but emails often stay in my inbox for days or weeks. I sort and organize them a bit, though. I'm a researcher and most of my email is from frequent collaborators whom I know well, or automated academic stuff. Reason #1: Some emails I expect to not be able to respond to for some time. We're discussing a project and I need some hours to think about it, read papers, etc. before I respond. These threads go for months (with many meetings interspersed). Reason #2: I like email to double as reminders or to-dos (though I also keep a to-do list). So for example an automated email reminding me to review a paper by May 20. I won't archive that until I've done the review. (Edit: I like the idea of sorting every email when I open my client, if not archiving it. I just don't get enough email for this to be a problem.)

Alex3917 8y ago

> I wouldn't ever consider ignoring or not replying to an email from a person who isn't spamming me. To me that's almost the rudest thing you can do online. I agree with this. I realize there are some people who get literally thousands of emails per day, but for the most part it really breaks the social contract of the Internet. If I get email questions about blog posts I've written or videos I've created then I just answer them and then usually anonymize the person and dump them online so that other people can then find the answer via Google or whatever, e.g.: https://www.fwdeveryone.com/t/WT-4NHhJQiyCa5mbDOhuGw/long-reap-benefits-erg-training https://www.fwdeveryone.com/t/WT-4NHhJQiyCa5mbDOhuGw/long-re...

BeetleB 8y ago

>It really just boils down to if I open gmail then I'm agreeing to myself that I'm spending whatever time it takes to address everything right now. Funny. For me, this was one of the reasons email kept piling up - not feeling I'd have the time to address it. And then there was the other related problem: For most of my emails, I do not know how much time each can take without opening it. >I wouldn't ever consider ignoring or not replying to an email from a person who isn't spamming me. To me that's almost the rudest thing you can do online. It used to bother me, but I've gotten over the feeling. I no longer find it rude when I don't get a reply. However, mentally I do categorize people as repliers and poor/non-repliers, so I know how much or how little effort to put into writing an email for each category. The reality is that it's cheaper than it should be to send someone an email. I put in more of my effort to reply to well thought out emails vs quickly written one-two liners. For the latter, it's almost always the case that I'll expend an order of magnitude more effort in responding than they put into their email, and I don't appreciate the asymmetry. And also, a lot of people still get way too much mail - and despite what many here think, it's not all in their control. I'm not going to fault someone for not responding because my email got lost in all that noise.

jbverschoor 8y ago

What about emails/conversations that span several months?

nickjj 8y ago
It's no different. If I see a reply from those people I reply back when I enter gmail.