Have you ever had that sinking feeling whenever you open your email after a weekend to find your inbox packed with multiple unread emails? If you are not careful, you might give in to the desire to destroy your laptop and give up technology as a whole for off-grid living. Alternatively, you can try these 12 simple ways to manage your email more effectively instead.
Using Attendance Tracking Tools
With so much stress roaming the office environment, the attendance tracker app can be an excellent way to embrace remote working. And when it comes to personal growth, there’s a way attendance tracking apps can help with that. These apps make it easier to schedule personal and employee vacation times. That way, you can plan for an employee’s planned absence or delegate tasks for your vacation. Besides, you can easily measure cumulative vacation time for everyone in your organization.
How to Manage your Email Effectively
When you are running a business, you are bound to come by a moment of email crisis where you are welcomed to your computer by an avalanche of new messages. For some managers, such moments are unavoidable and particularly time-consuming. If you are not careful, you might have a hard time digging yourself out of such activity. Here are 12 ways to manage your email effectively.
1) Read and respond to your email once a day
For instance, you can allocate time when your creativity and energy are at their lowest to respond to emails. Of course, this digital detox is welcomed, but not everyone is in a position to hop into the inbox once a day.
2) Prioritize and defer
Poorly managed emails lead to clutter, which in turn leads to stress. Cluster is bad for productivity and overall health. One way to stay on top of a cluster in your inbox is to identify the important ones and the ones you can ignore. Knowing which emails can be prioritized and those that can be deferred to a later date will help you manage your email efficiently.
3) Take immediate action
If nothing is stopping you from acting immediately on incoming emails, then do it. The idea here is that what can be accomplished today doesn’t need to be postponed to tomorrow. Hence, when you skim through your inbox, browse for messages that can be deleted. Also, locate emails that don’t need a response and move them to the archive.
4) Create a folder for scheduled responses
If you are continually receiving email, then you will benefit from creating a folder for specific subjects. These folders will help simplify your inbox and help you maintain an organized email. Besides, you can go a further step and create subfolders within the folders for better management. You can also create categories and assign them to a different individual for automated sorting, which helps you save time.
5) Realize that not all emails matter
Reading and processing emails that don’t matter costs you a loss of valuable time. While yes, you probably receive a lot of essential communications via email, not all are critical. Email management software is good at sorting through your inbox so that important mail is separated from regular messages.
6) Create a template for similar replies
Most, if not all, email clients support email templates for quick and easy responses. Email templates are an excellent way to save time and increase overall productivity. They are also helpful in maintaining quality communication and good relationships. That way, you cannot miss important information.
7) Read relevant messages only
When you spend time on emails that are not relevant, not only do you end up wasting time but also come out as overwhelmed. You don’t have to read every email you receive, but you can move them under different labels.
8) Create a structure for your emails
There are no universal guidelines for creating folders, labels, and categories. It is up to you to figure out a structure that works best for you. You can create parent categories and sub-categories in line with your personal preferences.
9) Use filters to sort your email
Using filters is the simplest way to hack email management. They allow you to handle incoming main automatically. That way, you can send email to appropriate folders or delete them altogether.
10) Use the one-minute rule
If you can respond to an email within one minute, then there’s no point in waiting. It is going to take a considerable amount of effort to let it hover in your inbox.
11) Set aside time limits for replying to an email
You can allocate time in your workday to respond to emails after hours of focused work. The next time you check your mail, remember to time yourself. If you receive alarmingly long emails, scan through the content, and determine if it is relevant to you.
12) Unsubscribe
Before you end up with so many promotional emails you don’t need, remember to uncheck the tick for promotional mail. Take note of everything you sign up for and only subscribe to the promotional email you want to see.
Bottom line
Fortunately, with a little time and productivity tools, managing the most congested inbox can be made efficient. If you want to see how time spent on your email affects your productivity, consider utilizing time-tracking software into your workflow. For now, the verdict is clear. Did you learn anything new?
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