Timing, urgency and async manners

Readers assume more urgency than you meant, and they're already interrupted constantly; say how urgent something is, and time it kindly.

Readers overestimate urgency

In eight pre-registered experiments with 4,004 people, researchers found what they called an email urgency bias: people receiving non-urgent work emails outside normal hours overestimated how quickly the sender expected a reply. That bias was linked to more stress and lower well-being. The good news: a brief note from…

The background: a constant stream

Microsoft's analysis of anonymised Microsoft 365 data in 2025 found its heaviest users, the top fifth by volume, interrupted by a meeting, email or chat every two minutes, about 275 times a day. The average employee sent or received more than 50 messages outside core business hours, and by 10pm nearly a third of activ…

Manners that help

Say how urgent it is. "No rush, next week is fine" is one line, and measurably lowers the pressure.Be most explicit out of hours, where the bias is strongest.Use a real deadline, not "ASAP". The reader can plan around a date.Bundle the non-urgent. Three small things in one message is one interruption, not three.Schedu…

The short version

Out-of-hours messages feel more urgent than the sender meant.One line about urgency reduces the pressure.Give real deadlines, not "ASAP".Bundle non-urgent items; schedule out-of-hours sends.

Try it in Kanvo

In Kanvo, press the arrow beside Send → Send later → Tomorrow morning for anything you write after hours. Mark only genuinely urgent messages Urgent, from the + menu.

Sources

Across eight pre-registered experiments (N = 4,004), receivers overestimated how quickly senders expected replies to non-urgent out-of-hours emails; a brief note on expectations reduced the bias.