Comments on: How Many Hours a Day do you Spend on Email?

By: Chris

Chris — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 16:37:16 +0000

I spend about half of my 9 hour day working on email. I typically receive around 50-60 per day, and respond to around 60-70% of them (the other 30-40% do not require response).

Regarding how I feel about this- I don’t mind emails that are a part of moving a project along, but it is frustrating when others in the organization use email as an instant messaging program instead of just calling or talking face-to-face.

By: Chris

Chris — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 14:59:40 +0000

I probably get about 30 e-mails a day:
5 personal blogs, 5 ministry blogs/newsletters), some related to my teaching job, some related to volunteer projects, some from family and friends.

I check it about every hour (but will check it less once we move our little office downstairs), and since taking your advice about answering or labeling, right away, it doesn’t take very long.

Now some of the e-mails, I don’t consider “business” and wouldn’t count the time I spend on them as dealing with e-mail.

Messages from friends are more like phone conversations that I would have had before e-mail technology was available.

Reading blogs and newsletters to me is like sitting down for a break and reading a magazine.

If I have to make up a newsletter or flier and send it to someone via e-mail, I don’t count the design time as e-mail time.

So it’s hard to say exactly how much time is taken up due to e-mail.

By: joe

joe — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 13:51:12 +0000

Typically email is open for the duration of my 9 hour day. Closing Notes is freeing, though it takes a mental adjustment to keep it closed and focus on other tasks.
Learning to stay after something/anything is easy, but being disciplined to do the important things is not so easy. Letting email run my day had become a form of laziness; not doing the things that needed to be done b/c email (something also necessary for file documentation) was easier.
On average 100 incoming emails, little to no spam, 2 feeds. Responses depend on necessity, but about 60% the those received.
Email at a minimum would take 2-3 hours per day.

By: Jeroen Sangers

Jeroen Sangers — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 17:03:58 +0000

I asked the same questions to the readers of my own (Spanish) weblog with interesting results:

http://canasto.es/2008/11/cuantos-correos-recibes-por-media-durante-el-dia/

http://canasto.es/2008/12/cuanto-tiempo-necesitas-cada-dia-para-procesar-correo/

By: Mark Smith

Mark Smith — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 16:53:43 +0000

About a half hour each day…maybe a little more some days. I’m an associate pastor and get a few emails/facebook messages a day from friends from church and usually a couple personal emails from family each day. I also get several things I’ve subscribed each week like Focus on the Family, Gospel for Asia, etc.

So I think it’s pretty good. I don’t feel that I spend too much time on it.

By: Ched

Ched — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 16:21:33 +0000

Part of my job is administrative assistant, so my email is always open.

I probably receive/send around 50 emails per day on average. I’m still trying to think through how best to process email.

By: Eric

Eric — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 16:16:05 +0000

50-60 emails / day. i spend 3-4 hours / day in email, but that includes some time spent reading links sent via email.

email requires a delicate balance: we must check email at various intervals throughout the day because often there are items which require immediate response, but it can easily be overwhelming as well.

By: gareth

gareth — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 15:35:26 +0000

My e-mail is open for 8 hours a day in work and my cell phone also picks them up depending on who they are from.

The number varies from 20 to over 100 daily.

How do I feel about that? I don’t mind really – since most of the people I send to and receive from live in other countries and don’t speak English as a native language, e-mail is much more practical than tele-conferences.

By: Brannon

Brannon — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 14:34:39 +0000

2 hours a day on email. Maybe 3.

Need to learn to shut it off for large chunks of time, but often I am part of ongoing conversations. Still could do much better than I do now.

40-50 personal emails a day.

By: Pastakeith

Pastakeith — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 14:18:55 +0000

Hey Matt –

About 50 emails on average, after unsubscribing from everything. I used to spend the whole day email-scanning as my to do list… but now it’s down to about two hours a day. three or four if i loosen up and start clicking links and watching video while i am surfing.