Want to open your email? Try sending it at 3pm on Sunday—but be prepared for backlash
Timing is everything when it comes to getting one reply to your email—and obviously sending an email on a Sunday afternoon will most likely draw a reaction from your team.
That’s according to recent research found that the best time to send internal emails is on Sundays between 3pm and 6pm
After studying 8.7 million emails, communications software company Axios HQ found that emails sent during that time frame had a 94% chance of being opened, compared to the typical 50 to 76% chance of being opened in the rest of the week.
Meanwhile, researchers say the second most effective time to reach your group is on Sunday between 6pm and 9pm, when emails have an 86% open rate.
Messages sent during this time benefit from “low competition” because they don’t compete for employee attention with Monday morning meetings and the steady stream of emails that follow.
But don’t confuse employee responsiveness with happiness: While emails sent on Sunday afternoon have better response rates than on a busy workday, they’re unlikely to yield a response. positive.
Previous research warns weekend emails are the worst if you care about your workers’ mental health
Technology is increasingly intruding into people’s lives outside of work and previous research has shown that workers are struggling to turn off and received Sunday night anxiety because they are always contactable.
Dr Matthew Davis, associate professor at Leeds University Business School, calls this modern phenomenon “technological invasion”.
He said female The Times (UK) that it “is associated with people feeling more stressed and less satisfied with their work and their work-life balance.”
“I’m worried if people see this and think I’ll start sending these more often on the weekends,” he added. “Because for some people it’s okay…but there’s a large percentage of people [for whom] This will add to the feeling of burden.”
Dr. Laura Giurge, assistant professor in the department of psychological and behavioral sciences at the London School of Economics, repeats her 2021 Report emails after hours that they can make workers feel like they have to work around the clock.
“Senders underestimate how stressful after-hours emails can be for recipients,” she writes. “In other words, when we view our inboxes as senders, we seem to underestimate the impact our off-hours behavior can have on the well-being of others.” .
However, from Axios’ research, it’s clear that people may already know that sending emails on Sunday evening will not go down well with employees or colleagues as data shows they generally avoid doing so except in emergency.
Despite their fast responses, weekends are the least popular time to send emails: Researchers found emails sent on Saturdays and Sundays are often “essential communications.” and only accounted for 2% of emails sent that week.
There is a difference between being opened and being read
The report also highlights that there is a risk of an email being opened but then ignored because the employee was upset at the time of taking the note.
“Sending windows do not always equate to reading windows,” the researchers admitted, adding that the rate at which employees open an email does not reflect whether it was read or responded to properly. or not.
Finally, managers who really need to respond to an urgent email should take Giurge’s advice and state that clearly in their email subject line. “To help others protect their health, it is important to clearly define the timeframe for making your claim,” she emphasized.
Likewise, those sending non-urgent emails on Sundays should also make it clear to benefit from fast opening rates without compromising the health of workers.
A version of this story was originally published on Fortune.com on August 4, 2023.
