10 ways to manage emails more efficiently

We are always trying to find ways to squeeze more productivity out of our time. Why not consider how to manage your everyday tasks more efficiently, like your emails? We’ve compiled 10 quick tips to help you manage your emails more effectively.

1. Check your emails in 15-minute blocks

According to the founder of Inkwell, Tonya Dalton, you can maximize your productivity by only checking your emails in 15-minute blocks each day. This means you’re blocking out time to complete this task, rather than constantly being interrupted with notifications during the day while working on other tasks.

2. Unsubscribe ruthlessly

One of the most inconvenient things is when you’re waiting on a response or reply to an email, you get a notification, and find out its just spam or a sales email from a company you subscribed to 5 years ago. Block out some time in your schedule to ruthlessly unsubscribe from emails that are no longer relevant to you.

3. Create templates

If you find yourself sending a lot of emails that have the same structure e.g. communicating with candidates, sending proposals, sending regular updates or stats reports, consider creating templates that you can save and just amend every time you need to send to save time.

4. Set up filters

If you’re involved in a number of different projects, setting up filters or automation for your emails might be helpful. Having separate folders and instructions will help you manage your projects more easily.

5. Disable social media email notifications

There’s a time and a place for social media. Unless you have a social-media-related job, it’s unlikely you need notifications related to your social media popping up in your emails as well as the app’s notification centre. Head to your settings and turn these off.

6. 1-minute rule

A common email management rule people follow is the 1-minute rule. If it takes you less than a minute to reply, do it immediately. This saves time from the email hanging over you, knowing you still need to reply, when it will actually only take less than 1 minute.

7. Avoid over subscribing

Subscribe only to newsletters that will genuinely bring you useful or essential information on a daily or weekly basis. With the number of newsletters wanting your attention, it’s important to prioritize.

8. Flag emails that are more important

It’s important to have a system to differentiate your more important emails from the rest. Be that flagging or archiving. Having something that helps you visually show this separation will make it easier for your mind rather than having to look through the list and figure it out yourself.

9. Set up shared inboxes

Essentially like a WhatsApp group, set up shared email inboxes for teams where multiple employees may need to reply to customer emails or questions. This saves time rather than CC’ing each other.

10. Get professional help

The best way to manage your emails is to get an expert to help you. At Everything Answered, our virtual assistants know all the tricks in the book on the best email management hacks. We provide email management for many of our clients, which involves filtering out spam, responding to anything we can, arranging meetings, and flagging up anything urgent. Get in touch?here?to get some extra help.