Survive an Email Avalanche

Companies encourage their hard working employees to reap the benefits of work-life balance, to go on vacation, and take a break from the office every now and then to recharge.

For some of us, getting out of the office isn’t difficult but for the 15% of workers that forfeited their vacation days last year— it is. What makes leaving the office so difficult? One answer that comes to mind is the avalanche of emails that you receive when you get back to the office. Opening your Outlook to find 50+ or even 100+ unread emails waiting for your response can be overwhelming.

Fortunately there’s HitMeLater.com, a cool website created by Philip Kaplan, that lets you hit the snooze button on your emails. Simply forward an email from your inbox to 24@hitmelater.com and they’ll resend the email to you 24 hours later.

Even more helpful, you can swap out the number 24 to any other number or day. For example, if I want an email to be sent back to me two hours later, I just forward the email to 2@hitmelater.com. How easy is that?

So the next time you feel like your drowning in a sea of emails, try HitMeLater to see if it lightens up your workload. I know I will.

(Photo Credit: Philip Kaplan)

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6 Comments

  • Chris Edwards September 6, 2008 at 5:37 pm

    Nice! Thanks for the post, great tool to have in the box!

  • Kate September 11, 2008 at 11:52 pm

    Amen, sister. I work for myself and recently went on a four day trip–78 emails when I got back. Email is my boss now! It’s madness.

  • Stephanie September 12, 2008 at 4:05 am

    @Kate: I remember when my old boss went on vacation and had over 300 emails in his inbox waiting to be read. My co-worker and I tried to help him by filtering out the junk email or responding to emails that we knew the answer too but they just kep coming.

  • Ricardo Bueno December 10, 2008 at 12:56 pm

    So this isn’t exactly the same, but it’s on topic (I think)… I’m using AwayFind to manage my email usage. Since installing it, I’ve had 2 people make use of the feature which is pretty cool. And it definitely makes me feel better about stepping away from my email to get other day-to-day work done.

    HitMeLater sounds cool but I have to admit I feel kind of weird about using it. Just sayin’…

  • Stephanie Gulley December 11, 2008 at 12:47 am

    @Ricardo Bueno: What features do you like most about AwayFind? This is the first time I’ve heard of the software. I noticed that they offer both basic and upgraded plans. What plan are you currently under and what are the benefits?

    As for my own personal email management, for daily management I take advantage of Xobni – easy installation and free. HitMeLater in my opinion, is easy to use and is a good options for individuals not interested in installing software on their desktops.

  • Ricardo Bueno December 12, 2008 at 1:01 am

    @Stephanie: hiya!

    Well, I’m using their “free” option. That works for me. I basically set up an auto-responder via my email that prompts people to the contact form set up through AwayFind. (Just to give you some background…I work with the Real Estate Tomato where we offer custom web designs and Training for the Real Estate space. Most of my emails are inquiries on our pricing and/or training. Sure I can access email via my phone if I’m away from the computer, but a follow up email and the contact form seemed like a good idea).

    I’ve only been using it for about 2-2.5 weeks so I can’t speak intelligently about ALL of their features. To be honest, I wasn’t expecting very many inquiries via the contact form but I have received a few which was interesting. When someone fills out the contact form, I get a text and follow up number (which can be a pain to locate sometimes via email on my phone since I can’t view some forms).

    It might not be for everyone, but it works for me…so far.

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