What is the ideal wait time between email communications…

This is the question that has been bugging me for a day or so. You see, for obvious reasons, formal emails and office communications ought to be dealt with as soon as possible, generally. So that is that.

But… how much time break should be afforded to emails between acquaintances with whom there is a to and fro communication going on. So to elaborate, if I send an email to Atiq, an acquaintance, and he replies back, out of courtesy, how long should I wait to reply back to him. The subjects being discussed are pleasant but rather light on material and as some one who gave the man a lot of attention during the meeting, how does one go about following that up through the emails. The persons not being there and thereby losing the body language factor in the mix greatly affects the matter, I think.

Was it not amazing to receive letters through the post. I mean, it was only 15 years back when we still sent our friends letter via post. How exciting it was to receive one in reply. Cast mind back further, much further and the images from ‘Wives and Daughters’ & ‘Pride and Prejudice’ come to mind. Ah, how convenient was life when it was slow. To quote Brooks from ‘The Shawshank Redemption’: “The world went and got itself in a big damn hurry.” Thats progress or so they say.

There is another reason, a more personal one at that. A while back, I was working for an internet company and I had the good fortunate to work with an amazing marketing man. This man was almost constantly on the phone and it was clearly obvious to me that he must have found it hard to swim amid all the phone calls, meetings and emails that were constantly filling his answering service, diary and inbox. I recall one Friday evening, almost everyone had gone home and he was still at his desk with head fixed on to the screen. I went up to him for a casual chat & amid all the random talk, he showed he still had an odd 200 emails to go through. He was a people machine, so to say. And this genius would be the perfect man to ask that question now, if only I could get in touch with him now.

Google Search also does not help in the matter as probably people think of such matters as far too trivial but alas, where would we be if man had not wondered whether mangos are edible or not! To each his own, they say.

I am going to settle for a two day break and then get back to him but then I wonder, two days is too short. Thats almost 7 emails in a month, factoring in his taking the same amount of time to get back to me…

I wonder.

Below is a wonderful Post Office advert I just could not help plugin.