I recently sent an email to a colleague and received the following auto-responder:

“Please note that this inbox is a CALM inbox and is only checked once in the AM and once in the PM. I will do my best to respond to your message within 24-48 hours unless it’s the weekend, then you can expect to hear from me on Monday.”

Um… what?! This auto-responder kind of blew my mind (in a good way), so of course I had to go do some research on this whole “calm inbox” thing.

What is a Calm Inbox?

A calm inbox is essentially a system for handling your email inbox where you set predetermined (and well-publicized) response times where colleagues know when you’ll be available.

It takes the pressure off you to feel like you constantly have to be checking your email to stay in the loop on important communication, and sets boundaries with coworkers and colleagues so they know when they can expect a response from you. This in turn allows you to spend your time in a more meaningful, productive way. It’s a win-win-win!

Benefits of a Calm Inbox

As you can imagine, there are many benefits to this type of email inbox management approach.

It allows you to set boundaries

Reading and responding to emails can be one of the biggest time-wasters, if you’re not careful. If your inbox is anything like mine, you get hundreds (if not thousands) of emails each day – and they are CONSTANTLY coming in!

This creates an innate pressure on us to make sure we’re staying on top of these emails – reading them, sorting them, deleting them, responding to them. And this can easily turn into an email management rabbit-hole!

With a “calm inbox” set up, you’re creating boundaries for yourself and the people you interact with. They know when you are (and aren’t available) – so just because you’re not responding right away, it doesn’t mean you haven’t seen their message. It just means you’re observing your preset calm inbox standards! Pretty nice, huh?

It takes the pressure off response times

How many times have you seen an email arrive in your inbox that you felt like you had to respond to right away (or else!)

Implementing a calm inbox system takes the pressure off this response time conundrum. It helps you feel less stressed, more in control, and more organized. And who doesn’t want that?

How to Set Up a Calm Inbox

If you want to try out the calm inbox system, you can easily do this by using the template above, and setting up your own auto-responder to inform people of your availability.

What do you think? Pretty nifty, right?! Have you used a calm inbox in the past (or are you planning to set one up?) Share your experience in the comments!