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Comment by pi3141592 | Hacker News Reader

thanks for the reply. on one hand what you are saying make sense.. too much distractions will make my other clients suffer and to me lose some money on the way.. on the other hand - I personally would not go to a freelance guy who only answers my emails 3 times a day.. what if i have an emergency ? (and yes,that is very subjective, i know).

I would prefer to receive fast email replies with a lot of value, rather than an automated response which would make me think i am using the services of a large bureaucratized corporation that treats me like a small fish..

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As a freelancer, I can tell you that if you appropriately set expectations with your clients, you can answer emails whenever you want. Personally, I answer all of my emails at 11pm. Nobody else is awake and there's no danger of an immediate reply.

If a client has an emergency, they can call me. My phone hardly ever rings.

To answer your question - no, I don't charge for emails unless the volume is excessive (> 10/day or so, not counting notifications from PM systems and the like). At that point, I just bill them an hour for "Communications and Project Management" and call it good.

Lets imagine you check your email 4 times a day instead. In an 8 hour workday, you would check it around once every 2 hours. So the absolute maximum time your client would wait for a reply would be 2 hours during working hours. Would your current clients find this unreasonable?

There are not many issues that justify a "NEED A REPLY THIS VERY SECOND" response. You should find that most of your clients aren't sitting at their inbox awaiting your reply, but also get on with their other work. For emergency situations, an emergency number to call if they need a response might be the answer, but stress it's use only for dire emergencies that are costing them real money if not fixed immediately.

This means you can have dedicated time focused on emails, allowing you to form better replies. Cutting back to 3 times a day would be even better. One when you start, once at your lunch break, then once at the end of the day. With an 8 hour work day, 3 times a day is still only a 2 and a half hour maximum wait time.

sounds reasonable.. thanks

Have you dealt with other professionals before? Say Lawyers or Architects or Doctors over email?

A 4h reply is good. A 24h reply time is standard. A 48h reply is not unheard of.

Why should programmer be different?

Which is more valuable:

1. Receiving email replies fast.

2. Receiving the work you are paying for finished fast.

If I were the client - both are more valuable :)

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