Steve Tippins explains why dissertation chairs don't reply on Thursdays: they review student work on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, so Thursday emails wait until the next week. Send your questions Monday evening instead, and if two weeks pass without a response, follow up asking for a timeline.
Over time, you're going to understand your chair and you're going to understand their communication rhythm. Sometimes you'll find people who say, "Hey, I work on your materials on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. That's when I have time. That's when I'm going to be looking at things." So writing them on a Thursday means you're not going to get an answer until the following Tuesday. But if you write them on a Monday night with a series of questions or a concise series of issues you want to address, you know that they're going to be looking at it very soon. If the university has that 2-week guideline and they haven't responded, you might If they don't want to respond after a week and 5 days, reach out to them again and say, "Just wondering how things are going and when I can expect an answer to this question." Drop the word "help" in the comments and I'll send you the link for our free dissertation help community.
