If you work online and use Gmail for your email, then you will know what it means to have many unread and unanswered mails.
Fact is someone might expect you to reply to them straight away but you might take up to 24 hours if not more. This is when you wish your clients or others knew about your email load so it sets realistic expectations.
Courteous.ly is a web service that allows you to publish your email load via a link.
Courteous.ly features
- The service works with Gmail and for first 12 hours after you sign up, it takes the email load as normal.
- It also allows configuring and setting expectations like adding “[whenever]” in the subject line when the email load is light.
- There is a link that shows people the email load. It is a good idea to show this link at “About me” page of your blog or with your email signature. It is also a good idea to share on Twitter or Facebook if you are really very busy.
Most times, a good strategy to deal with a lot of emails is to answer them as fast as possible within 24 hours. But sometimes, when you are back from a vacation it might be a good idea to use Courteously to set realistic expectations.
It also works with your Google apps accounts. Do try it out and drop in your comments.
Link: Courteously