I’ve activated my email vacation autoresponder ahead of PyCon US next week to inform anyone who emails me that I’m out of the office and when I’ll return. In my autoresponder message, I let everyone know when I will return, an alternative contact in an emergency, and that all incoming emails will be auto-archived or deleted.

This approach ensures I won’t have an email backlog to work through upon my return. It also sets an upfront expectation for anyone needing something to contact me after I return to the office.

I first got this idea and shared it with colleagues before I left for paternity leave before my son was born. I didn’t want to email guilt weighing over my head or to be tempted to check my email instead of bonding with my son and being present with my family. I also didn’t want to spend my first week at work reading old emails and wasting everyone’s time replying to irrelevant emails.

While researching to see if my idea was absurd, I stumbled upon this Quartz article with advice by Arianna Huffington which validated my idea. I never thought I’d quote Arianna Huffington, but here we are.

“The way it works is simple: While you’re away on vacation, people who email you get a message, letting them know when you’ll be back. And then — the most important part — the tool deletes the email. If the email is important, the sender can always send it again. If it’s not, then it’s not waiting for you when you get back, or, even worse, tempting you to read it while you’re away. So the key is not just that the tool is creating a wall between you and your email; it’s that it frees you from the mounting anxiety of having a mounting pile of emails waiting for you on your return — the stress of which mitigates the benefits of disconnecting in the first place.” – Arianna Huffington

Once I returned, I had a guilt-free, empty inbox. That first week back, I had dozens of congratulatory emails trickling in. I even had several compliments from people who planned on stealing this idea for their future vacations and leaves. This practice worked so well that I used it when my daughter was born and for several trips where I would be gone for a week or more.

Your job and company vary by their policies, so I would discuss this more and double-check who a good alternative contact is while you are gone. If deleting messages is against the company’s policy, or you aren’t ready for it, start arching your email so you have it to reference should you need it.