On average, a professional gets 121 emails daily. They take up about 28% of our work time. This makes it hard to handle other tasks. We often feel the need to check our inbox frequently, leading to what some call email OCD. The stress from managing emails is quite common. Thankfully, there are strategies to tackle this daily email flood.
Key Takeaways
- An average professional receives 121 emails per day
- Approximately 28% of a workweek is spent on email-related tasks
- An average worker checks their email 74 times daily
- The touch-it-once principle and one-minute rule can enhance email productivity
- Organizing emails into folders and categories improves accessibility
1) Allocate Dedicated Time for Email Management
The average worker checks email 74 times daily. Emails might seem less disturbing than calls, but they stress us more. They make us worry without solving things. One way to fix this is by setting aside a specific time every day for emails. Keeping your inbox open all day leads to constant disruption by alerts and notifications.
Schedule Specific Time Blocks for Emails
Time blocking is setting time slots for different work, which boosts focus and efficiency. For instance, start with the first 30 minutes on important emails and prioritizing tasks each morning. Then, have a specific time for follow-up emails and talking to clients in the afternoon. Finally, spend 15 minutes sorting your inbox and planning your tasks for the next day. Time blocking helps you concentrate better and answer emails faster.
Avoid Multitasking During Email Time
Research shows it can take 10 to 20 minutes to get back on track after an email pause. Frequent email checks can lower your thinking ability and problem-solving skills.
Use Tim Ferriss’ Email Template Hack
Tim Ferriss shared a clever tip in his book, The 4-Hour Work Week. It’s about creating an email format that lets people know when to expect your reply.
Organize Emails with Labels and Folders
Grouping emails into different categories or applying tags helps keep your inbox tidy. It makes finding specific emails easier when you need them. You can make parent categories and then add subcategories for certain projects or contacts.
Create Relevant Categories and Subcategories
In Gmail, you can make labels which work like folders. Give these labels names that make searching easy and consider using colors for quick identification.
Utilize Color-Coding for Better Visibility
Gmail lets you put multiple labels on one email, which is great for sharing and organizing. It also has tools that make it easy to set up these labels, making your life simpler. With Gmail, when you delete a label, the emails stay safe. This is different from how Outlook handles things.
Outlook offers Conditional Formatting, but Gmail shines with its color-coding for inbox management. A study from 2008 at the University of Washington showed that both systems are good for keeping emails in check. However, Gmail’s approach is more intuitive than the traditional folder method.
2) Practice the Touch-It-Once Principle
The touch-it-once principle is key for better email productivity and email management strategies. It’s about making fast decisions with emails. Don’t keep going back to the same email. Doing so is a time waste.
To follow this principle means you deal with an email once. Act on it, file it, and then you’re done with it. This way, you’re not always thinking about what’s still in your inbox.
The touch-it-once idea comes from the80/20 rule, or the Pareto Principle, famous for boosting productivity. According to this rule, if you spend 20 minutes reworking stuff each day, that’s 80 hours wasted yearly. That’s the same as two full weeks of work.
Doing things the one-time way makes you better at making choices and finishing tasks. For instance, it’s suggested you reply to emails within two minutes. Also, automating regular jobs, like filing your credit card bills, can cut down on effort and time lost.
The essence of the touch-it-once principle is in efficiency. It stops you from going over the same work again and cuts down on extra tasks. This lines up with the ideas behind email productivity and email management strategies.
When you use this, there are three things you might do with emails: Archive/Tag/File, Respond, or Add to task list. Sticking to the one-touch rule gives you more time and less stress.
3) Apply the 1-Minute or 2-Minute Rule
Use the 1-minute rule to handle emails and time smartly. If a reply takes 60 seconds or less, do it at once. This stops quick tasks from piling up. An offshoot is the 2-minute rule. It says, if it’s a 2-minute job, do it now.
The2-minute rule cuts down on small tasks and distractions. James Clear suggests using it to form new habits. He says any habit should start with a 2-minute task. However, choosing fast tasks over important ones can waste time. For best results, combine the rule with a system like Getting Things Done.
Forprocessing time in the digital era, the 2-minute rule is key. It fights off distractions and helps you stay on track. Tools like Motion’s Task Manager are great for staying organized. They make sure you focus on the right tasks.
4) Read Emails Top-Down, Respond Bottom-Up
Atish Davda, CEO of EquityZen, suggests a new way to handle emails. It’s about going through your messages backward, then answering from oldest to newest. This trick is great for stopping a never-ending game of email back-and-forth. It saves time and keeps you from falling behind. When you answer this way, you’re less likely to get stuck in endless replies.
How does it help? Well, it prevents long email talks that eat into your work hours. With Davda’s method, you stay focused and avoid letting emails rule your day.
5) Be Mindful When Sending Emails
Handling emails means looking at both what you send and get. You might have heard the tip: “Send fewer emails to get fewer emails.” It’s essential to know the purpose of your email. Teams dealing with a lot of messages, like Sales and Lead Gen, should check if their messages are reaching people. If you use email a lot, this is key to remember.
6) Keep Communications Clear and Concise
It’s vital to keep your emails clear and short. This boosts email productivity, email best practices, and email deliverability. Crafting emails thoughtfully can prevent confusion and improve how you talk to others.
7) Verify Email Addresses for Better Deliverability
Verifying email addresses is a handy step. It makes sure you’re sending your message to the right person. This process can make your emails reach more people successfully, which is great.
8) Convert Group Inboxes to Shared Inboxes
Most companies use group email accounts like info@ and support@. They make contacting your brand easy. Yet, group emails can overwhelm, much like endless WhatsApp alerts. The constant messages are hard to keep up with. There’s no simple way to manage who deals with what. This also makes tracking progress on tasks tough.
9) Use Email Management Tools Like Hiver
An email management tool called Hiver changes all of this. It integrates with Gmail and helps manage group inboxes. You can assign tasks to team members. This way, collaboration is smooth without adding more emails. Hiver’s features in Outlook, through its Office 365 Add-in, are impressive. It makes email tracking easier and enhances teamwork. Its dashboards show vital stats like message volume and reply times. This can motivate teams and boost productivity.
Transforming a list into a shared mailbox improves how teams handle emails. With Emailgistics, you get metrics to better customer satisfaction and teamwork. It lets you set working hours per mailbox and ensures emails meet service standards.
Having shared mailboxes means everyone can view and handle emails. This boosts collaboration and keeps the team updated on all email exchanges. Work is smoother when everyone is on the same page.
10) Email Management
Keeping your email organized is key in today’s world to stay on top of things. By using smart techniques, you can manage your emails better. This will help you improve how you work. Now, let’s discuss some tips to get better at handling your emails.
Implement Email Filters and Rules
First off, create filters to sort your incoming mails. This makes sure you won’t miss any crucial emails. Use labels, folders, and categories to make finding specific emails easier.
Utilize Templates for Frequent Responses
If you find yourself sending the same kind of email often, make a template. This saves you time and helps keep your messages looking professional.
Unsubscribe from Unwanted Promotional Emails
Getting too many promotional emails? Unsubscribe from the ones you don’t need. Tools like Unroll.me and Clean Email can make this easier by letting you unsubscribe from multiple emails at once. This way, you’ll focus on the emails that matter most.
Conclusion
There’s no perfect way to handle emails that fits everyone. It’s key to try different methods and see what clicks for you. A good email system boosts how well you work and keeps stress low.
Keeping your inbox tidy is important, no matter how you do it. Using the advice in this piece is a great start to get your emails under control. It helps you save time and stay on top of things.
Being great at email management really helps in today’s work world. Knowing how to sort, handle, and reply to emails makes you more productive and less stressed. Pick the ideas that appeal to you and practice using them often. This way, you’ll beat the email chaos and boss your inbox.
It’s all about finding a way to work with emails, not fighting them. Keep trying and testing what works best for you. Enjoy the journey to setting up a smooth and worry-free email system.
FAQ
What is the average number of emails professionals receive daily?
On average, professionals receive 121 emails a day.
How much of the workweek is spent on reading and responding to emails?
This part of our work takes up 28 percent of the week.
How often do professionals check their email?
They check their email around 74 times daily.
How can professionals allocate dedicated time for email management?
They can set a specific time each day for managing emails. Also, keeping their email closed helps them focus more.
What is Tim Ferriss’ email management hack?
His tip is to create an email template that shares when you can check emails. This idea is from his book, The 4-Hour Work Week.
How can professionals organize their emails with labels and folders?
They can use labels and folders to sort emails by priority or topic. This makes finding emails easier. Creating subcategories under main project folders can also help.
What is the touch-it-once principle for email management?
This principle is about making fast decisions with emails. The main idea is to deal with each email once, act on it, file it, and then move to the next.
What are the 1-minute and 2-minute rules for email management?
The one-minute rule says to reply immediately to emails that take only a minute. For emails you can answer in 2 minutes, do it without delay.
How can professionals read and respond to emails more effectively?
Some suggest reading emails grouped by conversation, from the newest to oldest. Then, reply in the order you read them. This can keep your inbox organized.
How can professionals be mindful when sending emails?
They should double-check email delivery, especially in Sales and Lead Generation. Verifying email tools help ensure they reach the intended recipient.
How can professionals manage group email accounts effectively?
For managing shared inboxes, using a system like Hiver can assign tasks. It also cuts down on unnecessary emails.
What other email management tips can professionals implement?
They can use filters for sorting, create canned responses for common emails, and unsubscribe from unwanted newsletters. These steps help maintain a clear inbox.