After reading Deep Work, I was sold on removing distractions. One of the concept is to have an email filter. Not an automatic one but some set of criteria which will force the sender to think and put more work into their emails. Here’s what I came up with.
Filters which your email must adhere to increase chances of my reply:
- No questions which you can find on Google/Bing/GoGoDuck under 10 min. If you still have a question, post it in a public forum and include a link so others can benefit from the answer too
- No offers for phone calls, just be friends, or coffee meetings
- Have an interesting offer for me to collaborate, do business or work on a project
- No promotion of your company, product or service
- Have precise amount of time required from me and the list of benefits for me
- Have fewer than 3 paragraphs and preferable a one-sentence TL;DR with one actionable step at the bottom
Meeting criteria won’t guarantee a reply. Not meeting criteria will guarantee a delete or a blocking. :) And yes, don’t think that if you send me an email (or anyone), they are obligated to reply.