Snowflake #11: Interact with someone

[melannen]

For Snowflake #11 I have started cleaning out my email inbox. I now have less than 300 unread messages in it! (This isn't as bad as it sounds because it gets all my DW and AO3 notifications, so a lot of time it's stuff I've already seen and replied to. It's still pretty bad though.)

I responded to missed DW comments from the past couple months, and then moved out ones I will probably not be responding to ever. (So if you got a belated comment reply from me today, that's why. And if you didn't get a comment reply from me today I have given myself amnesty and you probably won't, sorry.)

That leaves all the other assorted things I need to reply to or clear out floating to the top of the inbox. I am going to sit here tonight and work through them before bed. I am *definitely* going to do that, and not just watch Minecraft youtubers until 2 AM again. Probably definitely.

The thing is - okay the thing is, we all know that replying to emails is almost but not quite as bad as returning phone calls, but look, tonight I am full of vim, and pep, and moxie, and probably could get through them all! Many of them I have been anxiously rehearsing in my head enough that I can just dictate them onto the screen directly anyway. But. Sometimes an email is not just an email. Sometimes an email is a tacit commitment to engaging in social interactions of indefinite length and intensity. And I am bad with commitment! And also just because I had the vim and moxie to reply tonight doesn't mean I will when you reply to me tomorrow or next week! So I should just not get anyone's hopes up. Right?

Well, I have bribed myself by leaving the comment notification for the new chapter of It Seems the Hills and Rivers Have Been Waiting at the top. I can at least get through that.

Comments

[sylvaine]

Sometimes an email is a tacit commitment to engaging in a social interactions of indefinite length and intensity.

THIS. I always feel a vague sense of betrayal when someone responds back to my email reply within a day. I was supposed to be done for a bit!!

[melannen]

I did the hard thing! That's supposed to mean the thing is done but now it's back, and harder! You're cheating!

[sylvaine]

THIS EXACTLY.

[superborb]

Now I will feel good about procrastinating email responses! Really it's giving the other person a break for a bit!

[melannen]

I would say at least if the person took awhile to get back to you, and it's not urgent, please put your reply off and at least give them time to celebrate having replied ;_;

[pauraque]

I actually already do this, for exactly this reason! If somebody took a long time to reply, shooting them another reply back instantly almost feels like... showing off? Like look how fast I can email people back, look how on top of things I am?

But I am just as often the person who takes a million years to reply in the first place, so maybe I'm just applying the golden rule.