That reminds me-- altho it took me until this spring to learn the particulars, I've decluttered my online life quite a bit by letting my email notify people when I am less-than-usually-available. I had not realized that an auto-away-reply does not stop the messages from landing in my inbox, so that I can still watch for anything really important and, if I have a moment, briefly respond to it. I had always assumed that the auto-reply blocked the messages from arriving.

I learned how to use it well by watching the flurry of these I get from other people with similar professional lives to ours-- the way they shade the auto-reply text to be clear about how "away" they really will be. NOW I understand how I would use email-by-cell-phone, if we had it. NOW it is a tool that I could use to support what I do instead of distracting me from what I do.

~S~