Most of us use email for many purposes, regardless of our social status, job and other things. If you do not manage your email inbox properly and often enough, it turns into a mess sooner than you can imagine. It leads to low productivity and constant lack of time to find the needed message. There are some rules to follow to become successful in email management.
- Email is addictive, so avoid the first rush to check it out. One hundred percent that you will spend more time than expected because you will definitely decide to reply to some messages. The best way to avoid this is to refuse to check incoming emails at certain times.
- Set a clear framework and stick to it. To improve your productivity, plan your day so that there are no too long breaks during which you mindlessly open and close your email inbox. If you open it once, you will definitely do it twenty more times. Maybe it would be better to spend this time on some more important or useful work and leave some time to check your emails later? Usually, if you check your mail in the beginning of the day, you will see a lot of urgent matters that could actually wait 2-3 hours if you did not know about them. That is why do not start your day routine with checking email inbox.
- Unsubscribe from unwanted newsletters and promotions. Even if you think that they do not really bother you, your email inbox can run out of storage and then you will really need to dedicate a lot of time to cleaning it.
- You need to understand that every time you decide to quickly scan your mail, a break drastically reduces your concentration and distracts from the work you were doing. You think that it takes just a minute to look through emails. But in fact, there is a very high chance that there will always be a few extremely relevant letters that require mandatory viewing, which means that it will take more time to return to the previous state. I’ll say more – the faster you reply to emails, the faster you reopen your mail, which creates a vicious circle.
- To receive less mail, send fewer messages. This is natural. Also, if the email covers more than one topic, or there may be too many questions from the recipient, make a phone call or send a voice message to be able to discuss all needed details. Email will not allow you to grasp all the nuances of a conversation and it will never replace a full conversation.
- Postpone sending your reply. The sooner you reply, the sooner you are likely to receive another email. Each email takes your time, because you need to think and take certain actions – move, delete, reply, etc.
- If the message is voluminous and long, include the key information at the very beginning of the letter. Let the recipient immediately understand what is at stake. It is obvious that you are expecting to get the same in return.
- Use the third-party apps to manage your email inbox. This type of software was definitely created to make our lives easier. You just set up your rules and enjoy a clean and organized inbox, where it takes you just a few moments to find what you need.
