It has become apparent that email from students is becoming increasingly time consuming. Most TAs feel obliged to respond as soon as possible and this is consuming too much time outside, which is interfering with their other responsibilities.
I have spoken with Jack Prostko of the Center for Teaching and Learning (CTL) and we have concluded that it would be advisable to program email response "days" into your schedule. That way, students would not expect instantaneous replies and can plan accordingly. A suggestion would be to plan perhaps 3 hours per week spaced like office hours so people would not expect immediate answers, but would know that answers are forthcoming. When announcing your office hours you can just include your email response schedule*. It is advisable to ask people to copy the instructor and any fellow TAs and, in turn, have whoever answers the email copy the others so that there won't be duplication of efforts.
Of course, it would be best if you suited the days to accommodate, as much as possible, the homework and exam schedules of the course so that people would be receiving responses at a time when it would be most useful. The students can, in turn, learn how to plan knowing that email service is not open-ended. I would appreciate your comments or any suggestions you might have about this process. Thanks.