We’re all familiar with the ubiquitous out-of-office message, an automatic response that lets people know we’re currently unavailable to answer emails. However, the functionality of email autoresponders extends far beyond the confines of vacation alerts. 1. Blocking focus time Some key duties at work require investing long hours during which we might not be fully responsive to email. Some examples are: performance management weeks, yearly planning events, attending a work offsite, … It is a good idea to enable the email autoresponder in these cases to flag your longer than expected reaction time.