So I'm trying an email experiment

For the next 2 weeks, here's my vacation message:

 

Subject: I'm on vacation, and I've deleted your message—really

I know this sounds brutal, but here’s the deal.

I can't remember the last time I took a vacation where I didn't actually end up working a few hours each day handling e-mail. I felt I had to, because if I didn't, the Inbox would just grow and grow, waiting for me when I got back—the idea that I'd be flying home to 5,000 messages would always be nagging at me, detracting from my holiday. So I worked (which also detracted from the holiday).

 This time, I'm taking a different approach. I'm asking for your help to make my break more enjoyable.

 I'm going to be discarding email I receive. That's right—your email will be recycled into warm, fluffy bit-jackets for underprivileged children. I won't see it.

If it's something you think I really, really need to know, you can bypass this brutality by putting "urgent" in the subject line. But before you do:

• if it is something that can be handled by the wonderful Pragprog support folk, could you send your message to support@pragprog.com
• if it can wait until I get back on April 25, please resend your message then.

It's an experiment. Bon voyage à moi!

 

Dave

 

Comments

[David Green]

Good experiment -- enjoy your vacation and let us know how it turns out!

[Kevinrutherford]

Bravo! I'm back from vacation today, and every day I was away I spent some time pruning my inbox. Please let us know how this goes. Bravo!

[Skydivertak.wordpress.com]

How did your experiment go?

[R]

Haha - very Inbox Zero - I presume adding a link to http://www.emailalibi.com/ would defeat the purpose!

[qoolife.com]

Brilliant.

I'm trying this during my next escapade, for sure.

How did I turned out?

[Snowpolar]

In my current company, people will simply mark "urgent" and send again. :)

[Fahlsghs Bhufasdklhf]

Sounds like danah boyd's email sabbatical:

http://www.danah.org/EmailSabbatical.html