Free Email Tip!
Delay Delivery
How many times have you sent an email and almost immediately realised that:* You forgot to add an attachment?
* The email has been sent to the wrong person?
* It is written quickly, emotionally and should not have been sent at all?
Introduce the 3 minute rule – changing the settings on your email software – so that emails are sent 3 minutes after you have clicked send. The delivery delay helps you avoid embarrassing mistakes. Most people know almost instantly, upon clicking send, that they have made a mistake. Unfortunately 9 times out of 10 it is not possible to stop or recall the email (a recall notice often draws more attention to your mistake). The 3 minute delay gives us a chance to recover from our mistake, before the offending email is sent.
Why three minutes delay and not longer?
We experimented with 10 minutes, but found it was frustrating waiting for an urgent email to leave our Outbox. We’ve found that three minutes does the job of eradicating mistakes we realise immediately, but not too long to get in the way of prompt responses.