It’s Monday morning. When Linda sits at her desk, she experiences that familiar sinking feeling in her stomach… she’s not dreading the day she has ahead of her, she’s dreading her email inbox! !
linda is in charge of a great team and receives at least 50 emails every day. reading and responding to all this mail takes a lot of time, and most of your work takes a backseat to this daily task. As a result, she is notoriously behind on projects and has started staying up late, just to catch up.
When used correctly, email is an incredibly useful communication tool. But like Linda, many of us feel overwhelmed by the amount of mail we receive and need to respond.
However, there are ways to manage your email so you can be more productive. In this article, we’ll explore strategies for doing this, so you can get on with the real work at hand.
check email
checking your email regularly throughout the day can be an effective way to keep your inbox at manageable levels.
However, the constant interruption and distraction that comes from multitasking can dramatically reduce your productivity and interrupt your ability to get into a state of flow when working on high-value projects.
One strategy you can use is to check email only at set points during the day. for example, you can decide that you will only check your email first thing in the morning, before lunch, and at the end of the day.
Here, it helps to set your email software to “receive” messages only at certain times, so you won’t be distracted by incoming messages. if you can’t do this, at least make sure you turn off the audible and visual alerts.
You can also set aside time to read and respond to emails after a long period of focused work, or at the time of day when your energy and creativity are at their lowest (this means you can do more value at other times) ). our article, is this a morning task? It will help you identify when you feel less energetic, so you can schedule the time appropriately.
If you’re worried your colleagues, bosses, or clients will be upset or confused because you don’t reply to their email promptly, explain to them that you only check email at certain times and that they can call or IM if the matter is truly urgent .
reading email
When you read email, you can lose hours if you don’t use this time wisely.
first, try to use the “two minute rule” (a concept from david allen, the author of getting things done) when reading your mail. If the email takes less than two minutes to read and respond to, then take care of it now, even if it’s not a high priority. the idea behind this is that if it takes less than two minutes to act, it takes longer to read and then save the task “to do it later” than if you just took care of the task now.
For emails that will take more than two minutes to read or respond to, schedule a time on your calendar or add it as an action on your to-do-later list. Most email programs allow you to highlight, flag, or star messages that need a reply, so use this handy feature whenever you can.
organization email
Can you imagine having an inbox with nothing? almost sounds too good to be true!
Although a completely empty inbox (also called “inbox zero”) can be unrealistic for many of us, keeping our main inbox decluttered can make us more organized and help eliminate stress.
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first, set up a simple filing system to help manage your mail.
You could use broad categories titled “action items”, “waiting”, “reference” and “files”. if you can keep track of your folders, particularly the “action” and “wait” folders, you can use them as an informal to-do list for the day.
If four categories sounds too simple for your needs, you can set up a more detailed system. for example, you can create a folder for each project you’re working on, or have a folder defined for each of your customers or sales reps.
The advantage of creating specific folders to process email is that it makes it easy to find previous emails: instead of going through the entire email system, you can simply search in that particular folder.
use of rules
Most email programs, like Outlook and Gmail, allow you to set “rules” that classify email into a particular folder as soon as it arrives.
For example, you may receive several emails per day notifying you of sales your business has made. you want to receive them because you want to see what’s happening, but you don’t want them cluttering up your inbox.
This is where you can set up a rule in your email program that moves emails with, say, “sale notification:” in the subject line directly to the “sales made” folder as soon as they arrive. this means you don’t need to manually archive these emails and allows you to keep all sales emails in one folder.
non-essential email
If you regularly receive emails, such as newsletters, blogs, and article feeds, you can redirect them to another email address or use rules to have them delivered instantly to a particular folder.
This will help keep your main inbox uncluttered and they’ll be in one place, ready to read at a convenient time.
good team habits
One of the best things you can do to limit the amount of email you need to process is to encourage people to send you less.
For example, if certain team members regularly send you long, drawn-out emails, let them know. Tell them gently but firmly that, due to the demands on their time, you’d appreciate receiving emails no longer than a paragraph or two. anything longer than that should warrant a phone call. alternatively, they could stop by his office for a chat.
Also, promote good email and communication strategies in your organization – encourage people to use the strategies highlighted in this article and in our articles on writing effective email and using instant messages.