Ask HN: How quickly do you expect email responses or respond yourself?

9 points by wtpiu 12 years ago | 9 comments

Obviously, the priority of the email's content has a big effect on response times, but in general, how long do you expect it to take for someone to respond? Work-related, weekend-planning, recruiting, general inquiries from friends-of-friends, or whatever.

Similarly, how many hours after sending an email do you assume it has been read? 2 hours? 4 hours? 12 hours? a day? Do you assume that an email you sent in the morning of a weekday will absolutely have been read by the end of that night? And whatever time range you expect an email to have been read, what is your expectations for a response?

barnacle 12 years ago |

Write emails that be answered in one word ("yes" or "no") and you'll receive responses much faster.

See also: Why some emails go unanswered - http://theoatmeal.com/comics/unanswered_email

jamesbritt 12 years ago |

To the people saying "4-5 hours" for a response: I would really disappoint you. I check my mail pretty regularly[0] but make a point of not responding too quickly to many things because I do not want to say something in haste.

Sure, if there is a time-factor involved I will try to answer faster, but the limiting factor is rarely the frequency of my checking mail but my desire to be more thoughtful in my reply.

When sending mail I assume the same is true of others. They may have gotten my message right away but might want to put some thought into their reply. For most things I expect an answer in about 24 hours.

[0]: When I am heads-down working I put off checking E-mail because it is distracting. I'll skip it for several hours. Clients and friends will call me if something is urgent.

wtpiu 12 years ago | |

On the same page in terms of checking emails frequently, but not necessarily responding immediately so that I can formulate a more complete response / address it fully when I have the time. That being said, what are your thoughts when someone takes a little too long to respond? Do you actively notice when people take longer than anticipated?

jamesbritt 12 years ago | | |

Oh yes. Some things I know take time, but if I don't hear back in a day or so I start getting antsy :). But I dislike being a pest, so I set a reminder for myself to follow-up after what feels like reasonable amount of time, and try to phrase my follow-up in way that doesn't come off as "Hurry up!"

_delirium 12 years ago |

I typically expect an answer within 2-3 days. Varies depending on whether we're actively working together on something, whether there are upcoming deadlines, whether we have a formal work relationship or it's an outside inquiry, whether it's a quick 30-second answer or should have some thought put into it, etc.

tyb 12 years ago |

someone had posted an article about this awhile back, but (let's just say it could be implemented easily, I know it's unrealistic), having an email protocol system with different levels of priority, so that emails that are time-sensitive have higher priorities than marketing emails? I'm not talking about filtering emails into labels like google does with it's inbox/social/promotions, but actual priority levels that you'd add similar to an email's subject line. And if filtering is a more realistic option, what about establishing some sort of standard for adding priority to the end of an email (ex. ::::Important:12hours::::) that a filter would then pick up. And abuse of the system would result in your future email's priority not being respected as seriously by whatever sorting algorithm.

dylanhassinger 12 years ago |

as fast as possible

sometimes that's seconds, other times it's weeks. (oops)

i figure 4-5 hours is the longest anybody is away from email. maybe slightly longer for super busy or offline people

iamthephpguy 12 years ago |

About 4 hours if I know the reader is in the same timezone and its during business hours. If I don't know the location then its 24 hours.

OafTobark 12 years ago |

Within 24 hours 99% of the time. Longer for unusual circumstances.

Although always preferrably asap