5 Simple Tips in Managing Email Efficiently

Email is considered to be one of the most important tools in doing wok, business, and in staying connected with family and friends. Regardless of where you are and what time zone you are in, communicating with anyone, may it be your colleagues or clients, is made easy. However, without managing email correctly, it can also be a great source of distraction.

In 2014, it was said that email occupies 23% of the average employee’s workday. Different studies were conducted on whether too much access to email affects employees’ productivity. True enough, a study showed that limiting email decreases stress and increases productivity because it cuts back on multitasking and distraction.

Reading emails can take so much of your time. But, if you have an organized email, things will be easier and faster for you. Find out some tips on how you can manage emails efficiently.

Tips on Managing Email

1. Schedule when to read and respond to your emails

If you are that person who receives over a hundred emails a day, it is best if you set aside time wherein you can read and respond to your mails. Sort and prioritize your emails to the most important ones. Do not keep your email open all day or you might get distracted whenever it notifies you of a new mail.

2. Create an auto-reply

If you could not finish replying to messages in your scheduled time, create an auto-reply with your phone number and the best time they can contact you. In that way, even if you cannot address their message through email, they will have another way to reach you especially if it is of an urgent matter.

3. Create a template message

You don’t want to write almost the same response to every mail you received. It can be pretty annoying and time-consuming. If you are an entrepreneur and you get messages asking about a certain product you have, create a template message that addresses those questions so you won’t have to do it multiple times.

4. Categorize your mails

Deleting messages is the best way to declutter your email. However, there are circumstances when keeping a mail is important, especially work or business-related. The best way to do that is by categorizing them. Folders or labels will be your best friend.

Jacqueline Whitmore of entrepreneur.com couldn’t have said it better, “Prioritize, group, sort, and file messages to keep your inbox organized.”

5. Unsubscribe

One of the things that are keeping your email cluttered is your subscription to a lot of promotional emails. It is disturbing, especially when they send you a newsletter twice a day. The thing is, we often get so lazy to unsubscribe and just let it be. The good news is there is an easy way to do that. Search your inbox for the term “unsubscribe” and decide from the result what and whose email you want to keep or what you no longer want to receive.