I’m getting a lot of e-mails these days, and although I have a good system to handle them, I still find myself forced to delay answers to some things. I usually let people know when I’ll need some more time to get back to them, but sometimes I just can’t keep up.

So should I set up an auto responder, telling people that I’ve received their e-mail, thank you very much, and I’ll get back asap?

No, I don’t think so. First of all, I find auto responders totally annoying myself. This is 2008, not Modem Era, most e-mails reach their destination these days. Sure, they can get caught in spam filters and such, but chances are your server’ll send the auto reply anyway, so that wouldn’t help much, now would it?

Second, so just because I got your e-mail I’ll get around to answering it? That’s not for certain at all, it is even possible that I’ll ignore it, archive it away after I’ve taken in the information, and that’s that. Why would I do that? Well, I get lots of press releases for starters, and I most certainly won’t answer all of those, and then there’s the “would you check my blog out” flood as well. I do answer those, usually, but some requests are rude, and unless I’m inclined to tell the sender so, I’ll not follow that up.

So what is the solution to my e-mail problem? Well, first of all the sender needs to learn some patience, but I will also have to get better letting people I do intend to send a reply to know that I haven’t forgotten about them. That’s something I can work on.

My system for handling e-mail will, incidentally, be outlined on the upcoming blog Feeling Productive.