With modern communication, we’ve got used to sending and receiving messages at all times of the day and night, and it can become a little overwhelming – especially when messages start spilling out into after-hours, days off and even our vacations.
Being “always on” isn’t the best way to stay productive, and you can help combat this whirlwind of messages with the power of scheduled email.
Email scheduling allows you to compose messages when it suits you, but have them delivered when it suits the recipient. Despite email being an asynchronous form of communication, we tend to engage with email as soon as it hits our inbox. Therefore, when an email reaches someone it can be just as important as what it says. Having the power to schedule email gives you control over your own time and the reaction to your message.
From a sender’s perspective, scheduled email allows you to write all your messages in a single block of time, so you can focus on other tasks throughout the day rather than continuously hopping back into your inbox. This is especially useful if you’re heading out of town or plan on being away from your computer – you can schedule relevant emails and walk away without having to worry.
Furthermore, email scheduling can help make your work more effective – an email delivered at the right time will garner a much greater response to marketing efforts than one you shoot off during your morning routine. The best time to send an email if you want high engagement depends on your field, the recipient’s time zone, etc., but with an email schedule, you have the power to control this.
Email scheduling can also be extremely useful when working with team members who are on vacation, or simply on their day off. You can write an email to them at a time that suits you, but schedule it for when they are back on the clock – no more annoying messages while you’re kicking back on the beach!
The same is true for team members in different time zones. Many modern companies are going either partially or entirely remote, with a workforce spread across different cities, countries, and continents. Scheduled emails are a key tool for a distributed workforce as they allow you to send an email during your work hours knowing it will arrive during your colleagues’ work hours, wherever they are in the world.
Now you know some of the benefits, let’s take a look at how you can schedule email using various email clients and platforms.
Spike offers a robust email scheduler for any email address – Gmail, Outlook, Yahoo, and all business email addresses – thanks to its Unified Inbox, which puts multiple accounts in a single place.
Spike schedule lets you choose when to send any email from any account whether you’re on the desktop app for Windows and Mac or accessing your emails through the intuitive web browser.
Go to Spike online or open the Spike desktop app.
Click the new message symbol in the bottom left of the screen.
Draft your email as usual, including recipients, subject, and any attachments you want. You can also choose to send scheduled emails to a group chat for streamlined communication.
When you’re ready to send, click on the upward-facing arrow in the bottom right-hand corner (to the left of the attach symbol).
Select “Schedule send.”
Choose one of the handy presets or enter a custom date and time to send the message.
Go to Spike online or open the Spike desktop app.
Click your profile image in the top left-hand corner of Spike.
Select “Scheduled” from the dropdown list that appears.
Select the message you wish to edit.
You can edit, reschedule or discard your message as you wish.
Spike’s Send Later feature gives you the power to schedule emails from any account you use, all from a single unified inbox. What’s more, Spike also helps organize your incoming mail (even if other people aren’t scheduling) with Priority Inbox. This cutting-edge email feature splits your incoming messages into what’s important, which you can see straight away, and everything else (like digital receipts and newsletters), which goes to the “Other” pile. This helps you read messages at a time that suits you as well as sending them at a time that suits you.
Gmail remains one of the most popular email providers available today with more than 1.8 billion active users around the world. Whether you use Gmail’s web interface, iOS app or Android application, you are able to schedule emails to send out at a later time.
Open Gmail.
Click Compose and draft the email as you normally would (recipient, subject, and body text).
At the bottom of the compose window, there is a down-facing arrow next to the “Send” button. Click this arrow.
The “Schedule send” option will appear. Click this.
A pop-up will appear offering some suggested days/times as well as the option to pick a custom date and time.
Choose a date and time to send the message.