Email Management: Save 8 Hours a Week With These 15 Inbox Hacks

How much time do you spend managing emails each week? The number is probably in hours and not minutes.

If you’re anything like the heaviest email users, you may spend over eight hours per week on email.

And if anything, the amount of time you spend managing emails may even rise. In 2023, it’s predicted around 347 billion emails will be sent each day.

Reading and replying to emails takes up a significant part of the day!

Plus, there’s that annoying urge to check your emails every hour or so. Email management can be stressful and a drag on productivity.

The good news is there are plenty of hacks and techniques to help you better manage your inbox.

Here are 5 quick fixes to declutter and streamline your inbox.?

1. Label and categorize every email??

Flag, label, and categorize every email to create an organized inbox. The clearer this process is, the easier it will be to find specific emails when you need them.

Every person will have their own preferences for labeling their inbox. It comes down to your work and personal needs, so it may take some trial and error to figure out what works best for you.

For starters, create parent categories and subcategories for different projects or clients.

Then for your work inbox, you could create categories for items like team collaboration, company announcements, or hiring.

It’s easy enough to set up labels and categories in Gmail and Microsoft Outlook.?

2. Create mini-inboxes??

In addition to your primary inbox, you can create mini-inboxes within it and organize emails by client type, project, campaign, or topic. It’s an easy way to organize all those emails that accumulate over weeks and months.?

Here’s how to do it in Gmail:

1. Click “Settings” on the dropdown.?
2. Select “Inboxes” on the top navigation menu and add up to 5 custom inbox sections. Make sure you save changes.?
3. Once you are done, go back to your inbox, and you will be able to see a new tab on the extreme right with your custom inbox sections.?

Outlook uses Rules to keep your inbox organized.?

Here’s how to send all emails with a specific subject line keyword to a folder:

1. Right-click a message.?
2. Select?Rules.?
3. Choose?Subject contains.?
4. Add the words you want.?
5. Select?OK.?

3. Block out time each day to check and reply to emails

Checking email every 20 minutes eats up valuable time in your workday. While emails can seem less time-consuming than phone calls, they can end up creating more stress.

The compulsive urge to check your emails all the time interrupts your deep work time –– close to 20% of people check their inboxes as soon as a new email arrives.

Following the distraction, it’s then hard to refocus and concentrate on completing important tasks. In fact, one study found employees spend up to 23 minutes recovering from an email interruption.?

To limit distractions, allocate a set time every day to handle your email.?

This could be 30 minutes in the morning and 30 minutes at lunch –– whatever time works for your schedule.?

Avoid multitasking while you do this and focus on getting through your email as efficiently as possible.

4. Create filters

Filters take care of your emails automatically so you don’t miss any important emails that require you to take action.?

Whether an email needs to go to the right folder or go straight to the trash, filters keep your inbox tidy.?

In Gmail, it’s simple to set up filters:

1. Go to?Settings?in the top right corner and select?See all settings.?
2. Select?Filters?and?Blocked Addresses?on the top menu.?
3. Click?Create a new filter.?
4. Add your criteria, including the sender, subject, keywords, and receiver. Then click Create filter and choose what you’d like to do with the emails.?

This setting also lets you block email addresses if you want them to show up in your Spam instead.?

It’s also simple to set up filters in Outlook.?

From any email folder, select?Filter email?from the?Find?group in the ribbon.?

Once you choose a filter, Outlook scans your mailbox based on that filter.?

You'll also see the shorthand for the filter in the search box. For instance, if you want to display all emails that have attachments, you can select?Has Attachments?or type?hasattachments:yes?in the Search box.

5. Delegate your inbox management

Letting someone else handle your email accounts allows you to win back hours of your time. You could delegate your inbox management to a coworker or a virtual assistant.?

Here's how to outsource to a VA:?

• Give VAs a document that clearly explains your email inbox setup. Include details on folders, labels, and sorting rules.?
• Walk them through several examples of how you sorted ambiguous emails.?
• Have your assistant sort fifty emails and review their sorting accuracy. If they are sorted correctly, offload your inbox management to them. However, if they make mistakes, provide additional coaching.?

If you don't have an assistant or your in-house admin support is too busy working on other tasks, consider hiring a virtual assistant through a managed service like Prialto.?

Bonus:?Want 10 more email inbox hacks not covered here? Check out?Email Management: Save 8 Hours a Week With These 15 Inbox Hack

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