A staggering 269 billion emails are sent out every day and in 2018 the typical employee received 90 emails and sent out 40 emails per day!
Email is a powerful tool and helps get business done even faster. but it adds a lot of pressure to business owners and employees. Here are six strategies to help with better email management.
1) Think twice about checking email constantly.
Yes it is tempting to open new emails as soon as they arrive, but you only want to tackle your inbox when you have the time to take action. If you open an email and plan to get back to it later, you will likely forget. When you have to reopen an email to remind yourself what it is about, you are doubling the time you spend on that message. Avoid interrupting your momentum by turning off email alert notifications and phone badges. Instead, set regular times to read and respond to accumulated emails.
2) Don’t start your day with email.
Yes many people do this and it is how most of us start the day. However, beginning the day clicking through your inbox, can backfire. Many of those emails become items on your to-do list and you tend to put off important tasks from your day responding to other people’s requests. So plan your day around your business needs first and even knock off some of the more important tasks, before diving into your inbox!
3) Save time with email templates.
Depending on you job you can often end up answering the same questions over and again. Create a template that you can have at the ready to provide relevant details. Depending on your email software, this capability may be built in or you may need to add a plug-in.
4) Use filters and folders to sort your email.
Learn how to use rules to automatically filter your messages into the appropriate folders. For example, you can move all your invoices into your Invoices folder, emails from your suppliers into a Suppliers folder etc.. This can save hundreds of hours a year and the better and more organised your folder system is, the less time you’ll spend looking for specific emails when you need them. In Outlook, you can also set up a filter to change the color of email for different senders. Your boss or an important client can be red so you would know to handle that one first. Also save time by setting up strong filters for junk and spam.
5) Unsubscribe from mailing lists
Do you really need to keep on all those email lists? If not then unsubscribe. If yopu still need to receive it how about creating a rule to move the emails to a specific folder which you can then browse when you do have some spare time. This will free up your mail inbox.
6) Write clear and concise emails. Avoid contributing to others inbox chaos. Provide as much relevant information as possible in the initial email. Now, that doesn’t mean writing a War and Peace-length email but rather focus your message for your audience, anticipate questions and the answers in that first email. Starting the message with an informative subject line can make a big difference too.
Email is an essential tool in business today. Don’t let it become a drain on your time, energy and attention. Make the most of email with these smart strategies for email management.
Do you need help selecting the right email or setting up some useful mailbox management tools? Then contact us on o8 8326 4364 or
su*****@dp*********.au
.
thanks for sharing david