Email is an asynchronous medium and, as such, I’d like to add a touch more ‘asynchronicity’ to the mix. I’ve waited a good decade for this feature, and since it still hasn’t emerged I’ve decided to photoshop it into the blogosphere in the hopes that the powers that be (hello Google, Yahoo, Microsoft) or an enterprising server engineer might just steal it and make it.

I would like to be able to schedule emails that I write now to be sent in the future. Sometimes 10 minutes, sometimes 7 days. So, for example, you send me an email, I respond, hit the SchEmail button and choose the time delay or a date I want it sent from a dialog box. SchEmail would work as a server software layer between your mail client and your mail server. You can schedule your mail, hit send, close your laptop and SchEmail will send your mail at the prearranged time, regardless of whether you’re online or even awake. Sounds simple, right? Wouldn’t it be cool to be able to:

• Throttle demanding clients
• Respond and move on to the next task
• Without looking like a caffeinated meth addict
• Respond to stuff at 3am but send it at the start of the next business day
• Send yourself future reminders (e.g. tasks or todos)
• Communicate with your ex with safety and peace of mind by using ApprovalGard ™

Throttle demanding clients

Have you ever had that client, you know the one, where no matter what you do they always want more? Responding to their emails immediately gives them a sense that you are always available, and they come to expect immediate responses and freak out when they don’t get them. You have two choices with SchEmail. Always put a two or three hour delay on any response. Or, put off the responses until a scheduled time–perhaps the end of the day or the beginning of the next day. Heck maybe it’s late Friday afternoon, SchEmail that mail for Monday morning and save your weekend, my friend.

Respond and move on to the next task

Sometimes the best thing to do is to do the thing right in front of you. This can really become a problem with email, because it’s a never ending dynamic stream. The more of it you send the more you get. But it’s really hard for us humans to schedule things for ourselves in the future–even a couple hours in the future. We’re good at immediate stuff in our face, but not at remembering two hours from now (when we have new immediate stuff in our face stuff) what was immediate and in our face two hours ago. What happens to me is I use my inbox like a reminder list. But God forbid that an email I need to respond to slips below the screen–If I have to scroll to see it I completely forget to respond to it. So instead with SchEmail you can respond immediately, get it taken care of and out of the way, but throttle it a bit so you don’t create more work and communications for yourself by sending it right that second. Just SchEmail it a couple hours from now.

Without looking like a caffeinated meth addict (which you probably are)

Let’s face it, there’s something else at work here. You also don’t want to look like a desperate, crank snorting, working-from-home-in-your-underwear-with-nothing-better-to-do-loser. All of which (and more) is silently implied when your recipient receives a 2000 word reply 3 minutes after they emailed you.

Respond to stuff at 3am but send it at the start of the next business day

In the modern metropolitan world we live life during business hours. Or maybe we do business in our life hours. Or better-put it’s just all swirled together like that peanut-butter-and-jelly-in-the-same-jar when we were little kids. But we need to conform to the business structure of the world too, otherwise our non-work lives would disappear even more than they already have. Maybe putting a little structure around your email correspondence will save a few more minutes for your non-business life.

Send yourself future reminders (e.g. tasks or todos)

Here’s another novel idea–send yourself notes in the future. So you get an email from a client you were trying to follow up with and she tells you she’s going to be in France for the next two weeks. Send yourself an email for two weeks from now reminding yourself to follow up with her, maybe even remind yourself to ask her how she liked Paris. You never have to leave your email app or mess with some crappy calendaring software. Think of it as an email snooze button.

Communicate with your ex with safety and peace of mind by using ApprovalGard ™

Look, we’ve all been there–that sinking feeling after hitting ’send’. The even worse feeling the next day when you haven’t received a response and you know you screwed up. Maybe you were too angry, maybe too hurt. Whatever it was, you probably needed a little time to cool down and think for a minute before you sent it. Let’s face it, calling someone ‘watermelon head’ is just not conducive to mature correspondence. Why not schedule that response to your ex for a week from now? You’ll have a whole week to think it over and take it back. Better yet, add ApprovalGard and sleep easy. Not only does ApprovalGard wait to send your message, it also sends you an email request at your predetermined delay with all the body text for you to review now that the moment has passed. Like what you wrote? just hit reply and it automatically gets sent. Wanna rewrite? No problem, you can even put another ApprovalGard and time delay on it. Your ex will thank you. You will thank you.