Respond even if you can't answer

Letting people know you got the message ultimately saves time

Most of us spend more time on email than we’d like. Consequently, plenty of productivity gurus will advise anyone feeling starved for time to check email less frequently. Check it once or twice a day if you can! (Or at least never in the morning.)

There’s something to this…but it also feels out of reach for many people who work in collaborative environments. As Google’s in-house productivity expert Laura Mae Martin points out in her book, Uptime, many people’s jobs require them to see email more often than that. Plus, “No one likes collaborating with a person who doesn’t respond to email,” she writes. It’s frustrating, and if you’re working with someone non-responsive, it feels like they’re putting their desires over the need for the team to move along.

More importantly, she writes, “A lot of inefficiencies in email come from people ‘checking back in’ or bumping up an email because they haven’t heard back from someone. If you don’t respond to an email, it usually ensures you’ll get another email.” If you don’t respond to that, “another email is then followed by an instant chat to get your attention, which turns into a meeting added to your calendar.”

Probably it would be better to answer the email in the first place.

Of course, you don’t always know the answer to an email, or you don’t have time to deal with it right now. That’s fine. Even if you can’t answer, you can respond.

Martin suggests several holding responses, such as “Hey, I got your request and need to think about it this week — I’ll let you know next week” or “Thanks for your email — I have time scheduled next Tuesday to work on this so I’ll get back to you Wednesday next week.” And if you really aren’t sure, try “Hi! This is on my radar but I’m not sure when I’ll get to it, if you don’t hear from me in the next month or so feel free to follow back up.”

When you send emails like this, you come across as responsive and helpful. And, most likely, people will stop pinging you or trying to get time on your calendar. As Martin notes, people just want to be heard. You don’t have to respond to 100 percent of your email — I’m sure we all get a lot of spam. But actual colleagues requesting actual things is a different matter. Being responsive even when you can’t answer shows you are a team player — and probably will save time overall.