Bob Walsh includes the following line at the bottom of his email signature:
(I usually check email every few hours during the day.)
What a great idea! People who correspond with Bob now know that:
- he does not allow incoming email to disturb what he’s doing (he practices GTD), but
- he’ll definitely read your message within a few hours.
I’m going to adopt this idea with a slight tweak, and add the following to my email signature:
I usually check email every couple of hours during the day, and I reply to most messages within 24 hours.
This won’t stop the odd idiot from calling up to ask if I’ve seen the email he just sent me, but I am confident that it will help to train the rest of my environment to interact with me more efficiently.
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This is a wonderful tip. But it backfired for me. My boss (with whom I share a very comfortable relationship and who is VERY demanding) sent me a reply which read, “what the heck do you carry your BlackBerry for?”.
Nevertheless, I know it’s a great tip and reduces the number of phone-calls or follow-up email very effectively. I just don’t know how to reduce my workload. I get nearly 400+ emails a week that need my attention/reply/action.
Damn!
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