When we send an email, our minimum goal is for it to be opened by its recipient. Something that seems obvious, but that is increasingly difficult due to the number of messages that arrive in our mailbox, especially the one from work. So, how do we get the emails we send to be opened and read? To verify this, the communications software company Axios HQ has analyzed the performance of 8.7 million emails sent from its platform and determined that the best time to send the email is... Sunday afternoon. .
More specifically, the company determined that if the messages are sent between 3:00 p.m. and 6:00 p.m. there is a 94% chance that they will be read, while if they are sent between 6:00 p.m. and 9:00 p.m. That open rate would be 86% on average. These are the two most successful forks.
Monday is also a good day to send emails, although its open rate is much lower compared to Sunday, as the average open rate is 54%, according to data from Axios HQ. This rate decreases throughout the week, reaching 52% on Tuesdays and Wednesdays and 47% on Thursdays. In the case of Fridays it stands at 49% and on Saturdays it is 31%.
Regarding time slots, the data from the platform suggests that during the week the best time to ensure that the email will be read is to send it between 3:00 p.m. and 6:00 p.m., whose average rate is 70%.
In case of not working on weekends, it is surprising that outside of working hours employees are reading emails, but there is a reason for this. Since the coronavirus pandemic, people have worked an average of 6.6 hours on weekends, according to a March study by workforce analytics software firm ActivTrak.
Skynova surveyed 1,000 US workers and confirmed that 70% of these employees received messages from their superiors outside of work hours at least once a week. In the same report, it was detailed that 63.3% of workers thought that it should be illegal for employers to contact them after hours.
In the case of Spain, 82% of workers answer calls or emails outside working hours and 74% do so during holidays or weekends, according to data from the InfoJobs Digital Disconnection Report.
It should be noted that "Spanish regulation allows workers not to answer emails or messages outside of their working hours", since the objective is "to guarantee and promote the reconciliation of personal and work life". However, and according to the aforementioned report, 1 out of 2 workers does not disconnect because they feel obliged to do so.
Whether it's to catch up on Sunday to start Monday with greater productivity and a mental list of everything that needs to be done, to get work done ahead of time, or because a message has been received outside of working hours, it is better to wait until Monday to send emails and be able to rest and disconnect.
