I often find myself wishing I could send an email into the cloud but not have it actually get delivered to the recipeint until a specific time. I can’t be the only one who wishes this existed in gmail.
With snail mail, I can drop a letter in a mailbox and know it won’t get processed until the scheduled pickup time (tonight at 6pm or tomorrow at 9am). In the age of instant communication, there are times that I find myself missing that delay.
A few use cases…
1. Let’s suppose that I need to start a handful of conversations with a specific client. I have all the information to initiate said discussions, but know that my client is extremely busy. If I send out a big batch of emails right now that it’ll just overload their INBOX, which will not do either of us any good. So, I decide I’ll split these discussions and start a new one, manually, each day throughout the week. …if only I could batch these all up and set specific delivery dates/times.
2. Send Allison an email tomorrow at 7am to remind her to grab that spare Macbook Pro battery. I could email her right now while I’m thinking about it, but I know she’ll read it and have to remember it… but I also know she checks her email before she heads into the studio. A new email delivered to her before she hops on her bike will more efficient for both of us.
One of the most important aspects to a good interaction is timing. Right now might be great for me, but tomorrow at 8am migth be better for her.