During the work week, I average about 250 to 300 emails per day in my inbox.  

Many of them are people cc’ing me on something.  But I still have to read them. The remaining emails are requests of some kind. Approve an invoice. Review a deck. Give an update on a project.  

Not to mention all the sales emails that I get.  

Somedays, emails flow into my inbox like coins into the till of a winning slot machine.  

On top of that, I have about 5 to 6 meetings that I bounce to and from.

Between the meetings, the phone calls, the hundreds of emails and rushing home to get my kids to their after school activities, I’ve learned to scroll through my inbox like an instagram feed — very quickly and only stopping when I see something that catches my eye.

Even if I’m open to a new job opportunity, chances are that during the week, I don’t have the time (or headspace) to fully process an email from a recruiter.  No matter what the subject line says.  

If I don’t know you...chances are I’m not reading your email.  

But there’s a sweet spot during the week when the phone doesn’t ring, the meetings actually stop and I almost never get emails.  

Saturday morning. 

Specifically around 6am.

Early Saturday morning is the best day to send me a recruiting email because when I wake up, my brain is still buzzing from the work week. I haven’t fully shut down yet.  So when my biological alarm clock wakes me up, the first thing I do is reach for my phone.  

And there it is.  An email from a recruiter.

Even if I didn’t reach for my phone right away, at some point between 6am and 9am, I’ll bet my life that I’m checking my inbox at least once. Or maybe I’ll do it around 11am during halftime of my son’s soccer game or in line waiting for a cup of coffee.

And there it is. 

An email from a recruiter.  One of only a few emails that came in that day.  And since all the other noise from my work week is silent, I suddenly have the time and headspace to consider the opportunity.  

Even though sending an email on Saturday morning is a good idea from a timing perspective, if you consider trying this tactic, your email should still be somewhat witty. Acknowledge that it’s the weekend.  Acknowledge that you’ve done your homework on the candidate. Personalize it in some way to ensure that they respond. 

Maybe it sounds something like this:

“Good morning James. I know it’s Saturday but as a Recruiter it’s the only day of the week that I can get my emails through to people like you.  You’re just too busy during the week!  And let’s face it…tomorrow, your inbox will start filling up again.  

The reason I’m contacting you is that I heard from multiple people that you were the best (whatever) they had ever worked with.  It just so happens that we have an opening that, on paper, might be a nice promotion for you.  But I don’t know for sure unless we have a quick discussion.

Can we set up time for a quick chat this weekend or a slot early this week?  

Thanks and I look forward to speaking with you."

As a recruiter, I know working on weekends isn’t exactly how most of us want to spend our free time but consider this:  Instead of wasting your Friday trying to reach candidates who don’t respond, spend time using the “send later” feature in your email client or CRM to program some recruiting emails to go out on Saturday.

Specifically, at 6am.   

Just make sure you’re available at 6:01 when the responses start coming in. :)