They say that in the interest of email productivity you should never reply to a message unless there’s a direct action that needs to take place. But what happens when you get an email that falls in a gray area?
Sometimes we get messages thanking us or maybe saying something like, “Sounds great. We’ll get started right away. Talk to you soon.” And instead of replying with a dumb, needless “No problem!” or “Great!” I propose the invention of the Finger Gun button.
Quite simply, the Finger Gun would rest alongside the Reply, Reply All, and Forward buttons in every email system. It would act as a non-verbal reply that the recipient would interpret as either “Eyyy!”, “No problem,” or “You go girl,” for example. The context would vary depending on the original message.
Shooting someone the Finger Gun wouldn’t show up in their inbox as a new message but would appear as new in a special Finger Guns folder that would be placed near the Inbox, Outbox, Sent Mail, and Drafts folders. Perhaps you could set up your email system to send you a daily Finger Gun message that would let you know who acknowledged what in the past 24 hours.
To demonstrate, please observe some of the emails that are currently sitting in my inbox and could very easily be cleared out with the Finger Gun.
Email 1
Hi Doug,
It was just brought to my attention that a digit was left off the FedEx account number I provided. Here is the correct account number: [REDACTED].
Sorry about the inconvenience.
Thanks,
Laura
Finger Gun says that I acknowledge the new FedEx number and will use it accordingly. Please assume that everything is taken care of on your end. No need to apologize. We all make mistakes.
Email 2
Here I am sitting on a Monday catching up on emails after a great long weekend. All of a sudden a loud happy birthday broke out in the 1st grade classroom next door. Just when I thought they were done I heard "are you 1, are you 2…." before they could hit 3 I was next door joining in the fun!
Finger Gun says that I acknowledge the humor of this inside joke we share between us but have nothing further to add at this time. Replying with a simple “Ha!” would seem forced, though.
Email 3
Doug –
Look at this product that is making headlines all over!
Featured soon in Skymall, Hammacher.com and Hearthsong.
Regards,
Larry S.
Finger Gun says I have checked out your product, Larry. I will contact you if I need any further information but if you don’t hear from me, there’s no need to call the police. I haven’t been abducted.
So they should make it; a Finger Gun button for email. I’d use it all the time. It’d be a huge time saver for everybody and it would signal a renaissance in Finger Gun culture. To introduce the concept to the public, I suggest retaining Henry Winkler for a series of high-profile television ads.