{"id":20501,"date":"2015-01-06T15:56:00","date_gmt":"2015-01-06T23:56:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.backblaze.com\/blog\/?p=20501"},"modified":"2021-08-03T16:21:18","modified_gmt":"2021-08-03T23:21:18","slug":"my-permanent-out-of-office-email","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.backblaze.com\/blog\/my-permanent-out-of-office-email\/","title":{"rendered":"My Permanent Out of Office Email"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-20931\" src=\"https:\/\/www.backblaze.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/blog-manage-email-monster.jpg\" alt=\"Taming the Email Monster\" width=\"720\" height=\"405\" srcset=\"https:\/\/backblazeprod.wpenginepowered.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/blog-manage-email-monster.jpg 720w, https:\/\/backblazeprod.wpenginepowered.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/blog-manage-email-monster-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/backblazeprod.wpenginepowered.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/blog-manage-email-monster-560x315.jpg 560w, https:\/\/backblazeprod.wpenginepowered.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/blog-manage-email-monster-220x124.jpg 220w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 720px) 100vw, 720px\" \/><\/p>\n<p id=\"bzdropcap\"><strong>3,280.<\/strong> That&#8217;s how many emails I have in my inbox right now. Some of you probably have even more. Every day, I receive a ton of emails and feel I am required to respond to every single one, and quickly. But on vacation in November I inadvertently had an experience that freed me from my <a title=\"The Email Monster\" href=\"http:\/\/theoatmeal.com\/comics\/email_monster\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">email monster<\/a>. With the new year starting, I\u2019m trying an experiment to see if I can maintain that freedom.<\/p>\n<h2>My Email Monster<\/h2>\n<p>I have four primary email accounts:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>An internal work email for people to whom I gave my email address.<\/li>\n<li>An external work email that I list on our About page for anyone to contact me.<\/li>\n<li>A personal email for friends and family.<\/li>\n<li>A newsletter and other subscriptions email.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>All of these are \u201creal\u201d in that they are set up on my phone and I check them on my computer.<\/p>\n<p>Here are my four issues with my email monster:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Addiction:<\/strong> I don\u2019t have an addictive personality: I rarely drink, have never smoked, and don\u2019t enjoy gambling. But checking my email is clearly an addiction. Any moment I have a break, I feel the urge to reach for my phone and check my email. It\u2019s often the first thing I do in the morning and the last thing I do at night.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Distraction:<\/strong> Studies have shown that the \u201cDing!\u201d announcing <a title=\"The distraction that is email\" href=\"http:\/\/www.huffingtonpost.com\/joe-robinson\/out-of-impulse-control-ki_b_748802.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">new messages makes you stupid.<\/a> Long ago, I turned off sound and other such notifications. But I still have my email open on my computer and find myself, while in the flow of writing a blog post or analyzing our budget, easily getting distracted by an incoming email.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Duplication:<\/strong> I check my emails when I wake up, when I get in the car, when I arrive at the office, then check it a million times in the office, and check it various times in the evening right up until I\u2019m going to sleep. Since I often can\u2019t deal with those emails at that moment, I end up reading the same emails (or at least scanning their headers) over and over again.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Devaluation:<\/strong> Time is one of the most valuable resources we have for our work and in our life. Managing your time (or, some would argue, managing your energy) is critical. Responding to emails is rarely the most important thing to be doing, and often not even the most urgent.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Moving Mountains<\/h2>\n<p>A friend of mine had a new executive start at his company, and he commented on how this executive moved mountains. She kicked off large projects and made things happen that people couldn\u2019t get traction on for months. How? <strong>She didn\u2019t read her emails.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Yes, she was smart, strategic, ambitious\u2014but she also focused on key projects and not on replying to emails.<\/p>\n<p>When I look back at the last year, it scares me to think how much time I spent replying to emails rather than moving mountains.<\/p>\n<h2>My Vacation Insight<\/h2>\n<p>When I left on vacation I set an out of office message that said I\u2019m on vacation and not checking emails until I return and provided some options and contacts for people if they needed a reply. But (in part due to my email addiction) I still checked my email on my phone every day.<\/p>\n<p>However, and this was the key thing: <strong>I felt no urgency to reply.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>If something was truly urgent and important, I would reply. If not, I could simply ignore it. My auto-responder had set the expectation that I wasn\u2019t going to be available. If it was urgent and important, they could contact someone on my team. If not, their email would just vaporize.<\/p>\n<p>I started to wonder: <strong>What would work be like if I always felt this way?<\/strong><\/p>\n<h2>How to Manage Your Inbox, A.K.A Taming My Email Monster<\/h2>\n<p>Here is my three step plan to attack my email monster in the new year:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Start Clean:<\/strong> I\u2019m moving my email prior to January 1<sup>st<\/sup> into an archived mailbox. I can still search for those emails if I need to find something, but they don\u2019t end up being this perpetual, never-ending scrolling weight. Realistically, if the email is two months old, I\u2019m not going to deal with it.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Check Once:<\/strong> Ideally I will only actually read my email once per day, toward the end of the day. However if I do check my email multiple times, I don&#8217;t want to re-read the same emails. I have started using Mailbox on my Mac and iPhone. One of my favorite features is \u201cSnooze to Desktop.\u201d If I\u2019m not going to deal with an email immediately, I\u2019ll snooze it to my computer where I am more likely to be able to deal with it.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Permanently Out of Office:<\/strong> I am setting up an out of office-style auto-responder. It says the truth\u2014that I\u2019m in the office and checking email but that I won\u2019t necessarily reply. Here is the exact text:<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<blockquote>\n<hr \/>\n<p>Thanks for your email! Since I receive a lot of email (as probably do you), I\u2019m trying an experiment to tame the email monster. You can read about my experiment here: <a title=\"Taming the Email Monster\" href=\"https:\/\/www.backblaze.com\/blog\/my-permanent-out-of-office-email\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">https:\/\/www.backblaze.com\/blog\/my-permanent-out-of-office-email\/<\/a><\/p>\n<p>I\u2019m checking email once per day and will reply if appropriate, but here are some quick common answers:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Recruiters &amp; Software\/QA Outsourcing companies<\/strong> =&gt; thanks, but we\u2019re not interested.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Customers with questions<\/strong> =&gt; Please <a title=\"Backblaze Help\" href=\"https:\/\/www.backblaze.com\/help.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">email or chat<\/a> with our support team first. If it\u2019s been more than 1 business day and you\u2019re unable to resolve your issue with our team, please reply to this email.<\/li>\n<li><strong>VC interested in finding out more about Backblaze<\/strong> =&gt; We\u2019re not currently looking for funding, but please read my <a title=\"Backblaze 2014 Year in Review\" href=\"https:\/\/www.backblaze.com\/blog\/2014-year-in-review\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">2014 Year in Review<\/a> and <a title=\"Backblaze Free Trial\" href=\"https:\/\/www.backblaze.com\/cloud-backup\/personal\/free-trial\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">try the Backblaze service<\/a> for now!<\/li>\n<li><strong>Advertising &amp; Sponsorship Requests<\/strong> =&gt; sorry, but we\u2019re going to pass.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Please don\u2019t add me to your newsletter or any other automated mailing.<\/p>\n<p>Something else? I\u2019ll see your email and reply if it makes sense.<\/p>\n<p>Again, thanks for reaching out and hope you understand that I\u2019m thrilled to hear from you, but need to un-monster my email ;-)<\/p>\n<p>Gleb<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<\/blockquote>\n<h2>One Month<\/h2>\n<p>So that\u2019s my plan. New Year\u2019s Resolutions typically don\u2019t last through January 2<sup>nd<\/sup>. I\u2019ll give this a try for one month and report back. Perhaps it\u2019ll stick forever?<\/p>\n<p>In the mean time, how do you manage your email?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>3,280. That&#8217;s how many emails I have in my inbox right now. Some of you probably have even more. Every day, I receive a ton of emails and feel I am required to respond to every single one, and quickly. But on vacation in November I inadvertently had an experience that freed me from my&hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.backblaze.com\/blog\/my-permanent-out-of-office-email\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">My Permanent Out of Office Email<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":20931,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"content-type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[111],"tags":[470],"class_list":["post-20501","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entrepreneurship","tag-newsletter","entry"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Email Management Tips: My Permanent Out-Of-Office Email<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"I have 3,280 emails in my inbox. Some of you may have even more. Every day I receive a ton of emails and feel I am required to respond. What is the answer?\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.backblaze.com\/blog\/my-permanent-out-of-office-email\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Email Management Tips: My Permanent Out-Of-Office Email\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I have 3,280 emails in my inbox. Some of you may have even more. Every day I receive a ton of emails and feel I am required to respond. What is the answer?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/backblazeprod.wpenginepowered.com\/blog\/my-permanent-out-of-office-email\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Backblaze Blog | Cloud Storage &amp; Cloud Backup\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/backblaze\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2015-01-06T23:56:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2021-08-03T23:21:18+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/backblazeprod.wpenginepowered.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/blog-manage-email-monster.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"720\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"405\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Gleb Budman\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@backblaze\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@backblaze\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Gleb Budman\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Email Management Tips: My Permanent Out-Of-Office Email","description":"I have 3,280 emails in my inbox. Some of you may have even more. Every day I receive a ton of emails and feel I am required to respond. What is the answer?","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.backblaze.com\/blog\/my-permanent-out-of-office-email\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Email Management Tips: My Permanent Out-Of-Office Email","og_description":"I have 3,280 emails in my inbox. Some of you may have even more. Every day I receive a ton of emails and feel I am required to respond. What is the answer?","og_url":"https:\/\/backblazeprod.wpenginepowered.com\/blog\/my-permanent-out-of-office-email\/","og_site_name":"Backblaze Blog | Cloud Storage &amp; Cloud Backup","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/backblaze","article_published_time":"2015-01-06T23:56:00+00:00","article_modified_time":"2021-08-03T23:21:18+00:00","og_image":[{"width":720,"height":405,"url":"https:\/\/backblazeprod.wpenginepowered.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/blog-manage-email-monster.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Gleb Budman","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@backblaze","twitter_site":"@backblaze","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Gleb Budman","Est. reading time":"5 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/backblazeprod.wpenginepowered.com\/blog\/my-permanent-out-of-office-email\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/backblazeprod.wpenginepowered.com\/blog\/my-permanent-out-of-office-email\/"},"author":{"name":"Gleb Budman","@id":"https:\/\/backblazeprod.wpenginepowered.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/9267dd4f4f7d705914ea0047cc0ff8bf"},"headline":"My Permanent Out of Office Email","datePublished":"2015-01-06T23:56:00+00:00","dateModified":"2021-08-03T23:21:18+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/backblazeprod.wpenginepowered.com\/blog\/my-permanent-out-of-office-email\/"},"wordCount":1089,"commentCount":9,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/backblazeprod.wpenginepowered.com\/blog\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/backblazeprod.wpenginepowered.com\/blog\/my-permanent-out-of-office-email\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/backblazeprod.wpenginepowered.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/blog-manage-email-monster.jpg","keywords":["Newsletter"],"articleSection":["Business Lab"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/backblazeprod.wpenginepowered.com\/blog\/my-permanent-out-of-office-email\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/backblazeprod.wpenginepowered.com\/blog\/my-permanent-out-of-office-email\/","url":"https:\/\/backblazeprod.wpenginepowered.com\/blog\/my-permanent-out-of-office-email\/","name":"Email Management Tips: My Permanent Out-Of-Office Email","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/backblazeprod.wpenginepowered.com\/blog\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/backblazeprod.wpenginepowered.com\/blog\/my-permanent-out-of-office-email\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/backblazeprod.wpenginepowered.com\/blog\/my-permanent-out-of-office-email\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/backblazeprod.wpenginepowered.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/blog-manage-email-monster.jpg","datePublished":"2015-01-06T23:56:00+00:00","dateModified":"2021-08-03T23:21:18+00:00","description":"I have 3,280 emails in my inbox. Some of you may have even more. Every day I receive a ton of emails and feel I am required to respond. What is the answer?","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/backblazeprod.wpenginepowered.com\/blog\/my-permanent-out-of-office-email\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/backblazeprod.wpenginepowered.com\/blog\/my-permanent-out-of-office-email\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/backblazeprod.wpenginepowered.com\/blog\/my-permanent-out-of-office-email\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/backblazeprod.wpenginepowered.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/blog-manage-email-monster.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/backblazeprod.wpenginepowered.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/blog-manage-email-monster.jpg","width":720,"height":405,"caption":"Taming the Email Monster"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/backblazeprod.wpenginepowered.com\/blog\/my-permanent-out-of-office-email\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/backblazeprod.wpenginepowered.com\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"My Permanent Out of Office Email"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/backblazeprod.wpenginepowered.com\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/backblazeprod.wpenginepowered.com\/blog\/","name":"Backblaze Cloud Solutions Blog","description":"Cloud Storage &amp; Cloud Backup","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/backblazeprod.wpenginepowered.com\/blog\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/backblazeprod.wpenginepowered.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/backblazeprod.wpenginepowered.com\/blog\/#organization","name":"Backblaze","url":"https:\/\/backblazeprod.wpenginepowered.com\/blog\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/backblazeprod.wpenginepowered.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.backblaze.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/backblaze_icon_transparent.png?fit=512%2C512&ssl=1","contentUrl":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.backblaze.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/backblaze_icon_transparent.png?fit=512%2C512&ssl=1","width":512,"height":512,"caption":"Backblaze"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/backblazeprod.wpenginepowered.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/backblaze","https:\/\/x.com\/backblaze","https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/user\/Backblaze","https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Backblaze"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/backblazeprod.wpenginepowered.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/9267dd4f4f7d705914ea0047cc0ff8bf","name":"Gleb Budman","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/backblazeprod.wpenginepowered.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/bb-aboutus-Portrait_Gleb_Circle-Beige-e1636498747413-150x150.png","url":"https:\/\/backblazeprod.wpenginepowered.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/bb-aboutus-Portrait_Gleb_Circle-Beige-e1636498747413-150x150.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/backblazeprod.wpenginepowered.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/bb-aboutus-Portrait_Gleb_Circle-Beige-e1636498747413-150x150.png","caption":"Gleb Budman"},"description":"Gleb Budman is a co-founder and has served as our chief executive officer since 2007, guiding the business from its inception in a Palo Alto apartment to a company serving customers in more than 175 countries with over an exabyte of data under management. Gleb has served as a member of our board of directors since 2009 and as chairperson since January 2021. Prior to Backblaze, Gleb was the senior director of product management at SonicWall and the vice president of products at MailFrontier, which was acquired by SonicWall. Before that, he served in a senior position at Kendara, which was acquired by Excite@Home, and previously founded and successfully exited two other startup companies.","url":"https:\/\/backblazeprod.wpenginepowered.com\/blog\/author\/gleb\/"}]}},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/backblazeprod.wpenginepowered.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/blog-manage-email-monster.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/backblazeprod.wpenginepowered.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20501","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/backblazeprod.wpenginepowered.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/backblazeprod.wpenginepowered.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/backblazeprod.wpenginepowered.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/backblazeprod.wpenginepowered.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20501"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/backblazeprod.wpenginepowered.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20501\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/backblazeprod.wpenginepowered.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20931"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/backblazeprod.wpenginepowered.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20501"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/backblazeprod.wpenginepowered.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20501"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/backblazeprod.wpenginepowered.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20501"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}