In my business, I consider it very important to respond to emails within 24 hours. Sometimes this gets stretched out a little depending on when emails are sent, but I always respond within the next business day.
That’s important, and it is sufficient to make my clients feel like I’m on top of things, I’m responsive, and it’s also fast enough that I don’t miss out on things or have other major problems crop up because I didn’t address something soon enough.
I also do tend to scan email more frequently, and if there’s ever an emergency, I can deal with that right away, but it’s not usually a problem.
But what’s important to note is that it is absolutely not important to me to respond within 1 hour.
I think tons of people make it their goal to respond to things immediately, and it’s just entirely pointless.
Sure, it will impress some people, but it doesn’t typically provide very much additional value, and more importantly: in order to achieve it, you have to be willing to give up a ton.
The only people I know that do this are the ones who get notifications – often audio – every single time an email arrives.
In my opinion, nobody who is doing that could possibly be producing quality work. Just like a distracted partner scrolling through Instagram ever 3 minutes on a dinner date, they simply aren’t present enough to put serious thought into things and do a good job at anything other than responding to emails quickly.
So I think 24 hours, in this case, is the sweet spot.
But this makes me wonder: what else is like this? What are some things that people (or, more relevantly: I) do that that maybe take a lot of extra work and provide little additional value?
Are there any other notable areas where I may be well outside the sweet spot?
The answer has got to be “yes”.
Some categories could be:
- When I’m working and/or available during the day (or week)
- The level of detail in my communications
- Pursuit of marketing opportunities
- How much time I spend working on the business
And the list goes on.
Of these, it’s a bit of a mixed bag. I think I’m happy with my work hours. I’m available enough but still retain flexibility for other non-work opportunities.
I perhaps do communicate a bit too much, but I do almost everything via email and I can type really fast, so I don’t feel that it takes up that much of my time.
I’ve been slacking in marketing opportunities, for sure. Writing in this blog has essentially been all I’ve done. So that one is nowhere near the sweet spot.
Likewise, working on the business has probably been slacking a bit.
There are many things I’m aware of that I could and should be doing more with. But I think I’m more curious with this blog post to determine if there’s anything else I’m actually being too aggressive in.
Nothing comes to mind, unfortunately (fortunately?). But now I’m thinking about it, and if I figure something out, I’ll write about it.