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Ask HN: How often do you reply to emails/voicemail/text?
I had a discussion with an acquaintance recently. I have made a mission to reply to anybody who emails, texts, or leaves me a voice mail. My argument is that if somebody makes an effort to establish contact with me, I should at least acknowledge it.
I'm also doing this because I would hope that when I email others, they would also reply.
His argument though is that it's unreasonable for people to expect a reply. People get busy, etc.
So HNers, how often do you reply to emails, sms, etc? Do you ignore emails a lot?
My practice is that I reply to an email thread at least once. I also tend to ignore emails from headhunters especially those that looked like they were auto-generated.
Follow-up question is, would you email somebody who probably won't give you a reply?
- JournalistHack 17y agoI keep 1 high priority email account that beeps me with any new message. And several others with assigned purposes. This enables me to stay (best I can) focused on "code alone" ( plus HN for breaks ;).
- vaksel 17y agoI reply to pretty much all emails I get from real people, but then again I only get 3-4 per day that need a reply. If I had thousands of emails to reply to like some people, I'd probably be a lot more selective. As far as emailing someone...if I'm emailing out of the blue, I pretty much fire and forget. If I get a reply great, if I don't, no worries.
- DanielStraight 17y agoI reply immediately to emails that require a reply at work. Within a day at home. Texts I generally reply to within minutes whether they require a reply or not. Voice mails I never reply or listen to. If I get a voice mail, I look through the missed calls, guess who left it and then seek them out either in person or by calling them back. If checking voice mail wasn't THE worst UI experience on earth, that might be different.
- dannyr 17y agoI agree. I rarely check voicemails but return calls. Maybe a visual voicemail or transcriptions would help.