7 Ways to Manage Your Email
The average person’s email inbox is a mess, and for a reason. With a combination of work, email-based project management, and personal mail, it’s easy to see why people get inboxes with thousands of unopened emails. There’s a way around the madness, but you need to know what to do.
Are you looking to get your email in tip-top shape? An organized inbox should help improve your productivity even further. Here are 7 ways to manage your email and clear the annoying clutter.
Set up a priority folder
When it comes to your email, the first thing you need to do is to have a priority folder. If you get 100 emails a day, it’s crucial to have a folder where all priority mails go. This should be the most important folder in your email, as this is the folder for things you need to act on immediately.
For example, your “Action Items” folder should be for tasks you cannot put off for another day. You will probably find a lot of junk in your inbox, so to ensure this folder doesn’t get too full, you should file your junk emails away into a separate folder.
One smart way is to use your primary folder as your priority inbox. You will receive everything in this folder and, from there, move low-priority emails to their respective folders. Your priority folder should only have a few dozen emails or less at a time, with only the actionable emails on it.Set up a schedule
If you do remote work collaboration, you’ll notice that there are times when the emails come. If you don’t want to waste your time watching over your emails, you need to aside time to handle them. Your inboxes can get messy if you don’t set a routine for checking them. Decide on a time frame, such as “At 10:30 am,” “At 1:30 pm,” etc., and check these folders at that specified time.
Setting a schedule offers several benefits. First, people would know when you are on your email and will likely send them when they know you can attend to them. At the same time, you can work on other, more critical tasks rather than waste all your attention on answering emails.
You can also set up an email rule that automatically files emails into your “Action Items” folder if they arrive after a specific time.
Unsubscribe from 95% of your mailing lists
Many of the emails you receive are junk, and not all mailing lists are created equal. At the very least, most of them contain unwanted promotions, but many of them also have important news. Sadly, these emails get lost in your inboxes, and if you never read them, you end up wasting a lot of time on pointless emails.
We all have our interests, and, understandably, you’d want to hear about what’s happening around the world. Regardless, it’s best to pare down your mailing list to less than 5 to 10 percent of your entire list.
If you do it right, unsubscribing from mailing lists won’t take you a lot of time and money. When you receive a newsletter, consider if you still enjoy their content. If you simply read or delete the message once you receive it, it’s time to unsubscribe.
Turn off social media notifications
Social media isn’t evil, but spending too much time on it can be counterproductive, especially while you’re trying to work. It’s easy to get distracted when you’re constantly checking your accounts. It also clutters your email with many notifications that offer no value whatsoever.
You can prevent this from happening by turning off notifications on your smartphone. This way, you won’t be tempted to check your account when you’re supposed to be working. It will also prevent you from getting distracted at work, as you won’t be able to check your account.
While most email addresses have a dedicated “Social” folder to segregate social media notifications, it’s still best to turn them off entirely. They take up valuable space in your email that you could use for something else.
Set up email filters
More than 90 percent of business emails contain a lot of unimportant information. This clutters your inbox, and it gets harder to process the information that’s crucial to your work. This is where email rules and filters come in.
One way to deal with this clutter is to set up email filters. These are automated rules that move certain mail to specific folders. For example, you might have a “To-Do” folder, and whenever you receive an email with a subject related to work, it automatically gets filed there.
Email filters can be simple or complicated, depending on how many types of senders and categories you want to organize. You don’t have to use complex filters to manage your inbox, but you can find email filters for almost every email client and operating system.
Use your calendar to track emails requiring follow-up
When emails require follow-up, it gets hard to keep track of them. Maybe you have an email that requires a response, but you forget about it. When this happens, you risk missing important deadlines; in turn, you also risk getting in trouble with your employer or clients.
To avoid this, you can use your calendar and set up alerts that notify you when you’re supposed to follow up on emails. You can also set up reminders that send you a message when the time’s up. Most calendars work well with most email applications, so you should utilize their notification feature.
Use the search box
The search box in your email can be helpful, but it’s only reliable if you use it the right way. Instead of looking for keywords in the subject or body of an email, it’s best to use the search feature to look for specific messages.
For example, let’s say you’re looking for a mail about your upcoming project. You can search for “project,” and the search feature will automatically find the exact message you want.
You can also use the search bar to narrow down your search and handle your inbox more quickly and efficiently.
The Bottom Line
While managing your inbox can be time-consuming, it’s one of the best ways to cut down on clutter and boost productivity. You can tame your inboxes to improve your productivity with the right approach. While these tips won’t fix your email mess overnight, they will help you tame your inbox and declutter it.
