Socially-Sustainable Email

E-mail has become ubiquitous in modern life, as access has become available via smartphones and tablets, in addition to desktop and laptop computers. However, this ubiquity has created the phenomenon of being unable to ‘unplug’ from work when email is constantly accessible on these devices. Some organisations have even instituted policies to keep their e-mail within working hours, e.g. Siemens and Volkswagen. We have created and e-mail relay that achieves the same effect for an individual, as it interfaces between a user’s devices and their email accounts. It operates in two parts as shown in the Figure below. First, by buffering outgoing (SMTP) mail from the user if it is not sent during pre-defined working hours, until it is once again working hours. Second, by hiding incoming email that arrives outside of working hours, which is done my intercepting and modifying messages as necessary when relaying the IMAP protocol between the user’s email accounts and their devices.