Manage Email Hell with Delayed AutoResponders - Open Idea

What I want is to automatically archive and send a “Canned Response” to all emails in my inbox older than 3 days. The “Canned Response” might read,

“I’m sorry that I haven’t responded to your email.  Please resend it if you need me to respond.  And as always, call me if it’s urgent! thx”

That will get important emails back to the top of my inbox.  All other emails simply never consume your attention.

GMail “Canned Response” - almost but no cigar

GMail recently introduced “Canned Responses” that can be customized and made part of an email filter.  For instance, you can set up a filter that automatically responds to your Mom’s emails with something like, “Hey Mom, I’ve been so swamped at work.  I could really use some of your great chicken soup.  Love from your favorite son”.  It’s close but unfortunately you can’t filter emails after they’ve already been in your inbox for a while.  GMail filters only work as emails arrive.

EMail Hell

If you’re like most people, you probably go email banrupt once a week.  Your inbox quickly runs out of control with no hope of ever reading and responding to all those emails.

The problem is that buried in your inbox, is an email from a VC who’s lost your number.  Woops!

If you could, you would prioritize your emails, process the important ones and discard the rest.  Not easy to do, even with GMail.

Maybe this “Delayed AutoResponder” idea can do the trick.

I’ve got to get this feature… Sounds like another weekend project.

If your email system does this or you have some addin or script that accomplishes this, let me know:)

(photo by David’s digits)

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