How many times have you returned to work after a short break to find hundreds or even thousands of emails waiting in a bulging inbox?

Not only does this mean you have to spend the first few hours back at your computer filing, deleting, and replying to email. But it’s also easy to miss an important communication – and lose your sanity – as you struggle to work through your inbox.

Often, there’s not much that you can do about this. But have you ever considered how you can help make other people’s return to work a little less stressful?

One way is to simply delay sending email if you know that the recipient is on holiday.

Instead, just put your email together as usual. Then either schedule the send for when you know the person will be back in the office (if your email software allows this), or just save it in your drafts and make a note to send it at a later date.

That way, that’s one less email for them to deal with. Plus, you’re more likely to have their attention when they do receive your email.