

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

Obviously, the priority of the email&#x27;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.<p>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?
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barnacle
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](http://theoatmeal.com/comics/unanswered_email)

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jamesbritt
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.

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wtpiu
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?

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jamesbritt
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!"

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_delirium
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.

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tyb
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.

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dylanhassinger
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

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iamthephpguy
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.

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

Although always preferrably asap

