Nah, no thanks. This is a losing battle. The "better" you are at email and the more responsive you are, the more email you'll get. Each prompt response sets a precedent, signaling your availability and encouraging more frequent communication. As your efficiency increases, so does the expectation for promptness, leading to an ever-growing volume of emails. Just opt out of staying on top of email and similar things.
Your particular point could be solved by an optionally overridable delay on responses.
I agree that optimizing for "respond to all things promptly" could lead to what you're saying. That doesn't need to be what you're optimizing for, solely.
If being good at email brings more high value email, well, that's one of those good problems maybe. If it brings more low value email, treat the low value email differently. Or rather, treat all email as what it is.
I'm not saying there's no place at all for purposefully delayed responses.
> Just opt out of staying on top of email and similar things.
People who do that go to the bottom of my "would hire again" list. I like working with people who communicate in a timely manner. Nothing wrong with replying, "I' busy today, I'll get back to you after the weekend" if you want to get off the hamster wheel of replying in a timely manner without being a jerk.
