It was “music to my ears” or “beauty to my eyes” when I received this email autoresponse from Tim Dodge:
From: “Tim Dodge”
Date: xxx
To: <[email protected]>
Subject: Auto-reply: Your recent e-mail to me
Please be aware that, to minimize interruptions and provide faster responses to member and media inquiries, I check my e-mail only at 8:30 AM, 11:30 AM, and 4:00 PM. Therefore, I may not see your message right away. If you need a response sooner than that, please call me at 1-800-xxx-xxxx extension xxx.
Thank you for understanding.
Tim
Now, this approach may not be for everyone. We’ve been harping on spreading out the times you check email as a great way to be more productive…
I asked Tim how this system has worked for him, and here is his response:
I have no objection to you mentioning me by name in your blog. The automated e-mail response has worked pretty well, on the whole. I started using it because I read several time management articles that strongly suggested checking e-mail only twice a day. I decided to try it and set two daily MS Outlook reminders for me to check – one at 11:30 AM, the other at 4 PM (I’ve also fallen into the habit of checking when I turn on my computer in the morning, but that just allows me to ID and delete spam.) I found that limiting my e-mail checking was easy to adjust to, but my colleagues didn’t know about the change. Consequently, I’d get phone calls at 10 AM saying, “Did you read the e-mail so&so just sent?” Eventually, I decided I should let people know what I was doing. Honestly, I expected to get some grief from colleagues, a couple of whom feel very strongly that we should respond to customers immediately about anything. I was pleasantly surprised at the lack of response. The only complaint is from one of my brothers, who said that it’s annoying. J
I like limiting e-mail checks to a couple of times a day because it reduces interruptions. If there was a way to close the e-mail program completely while leaving on the calendar, task list and journal features, I’d love it. If Outlook is open, it’s constantly tempting you to look at the 10 unread messages in your in box.
That’s my story, fwiw.
Regards,
Tim
