Introduction

Proper management of emails in a professional setting can certainly open up additional time and boost overall productivity at work. Hence it is always beneficial to take a structured approach to managing email inbox, one can easily work around different tasks efficiently leaving teams with more time to focus on strategic aspects.

Managing emails consumes a lot of valuable time, statistics suggest that an average professional receives over 100 emails every day. A large chunk of working individuals spend a significant part of their day in reading, writing, and replying to emails.  As a consequence, they often feel overwhelmed by overflowing inboxes and it impacts their overall productivity.

If an individual is able to take a strategic approach and organize email management practices work becomes a lot easier. It will release more time and help become more productive in their approach. The following section of this article talks about some of the proven email management approaches and strategies.

• Defining Folders, Labels, and Categories
• Allocating Time in the Work Schedule
• Stick To 1 minute Rule
• Conver Group Email Accounts into Shared Inboxes
• Always Read Top Down Write Bottom Up
• Know the Right Time for Sending Emails
• Touch it Once

Defining Folders, Labels, and Categories

One of the common ways of simplifying email management is utilizing proper engagement. It includes defining clear labels, categories, and folders. One must keep in mind that there is no standard rule that applies to the creation of categories. It mostly depends on the person and the type of email they are receiving. Also how an individual wishes to segregate messages.

For instance, someone working in the finance department might require access to different folders like reimbursements, invoices, payroll, etc. Similarly, for the marketing team, the folders can be marked as guest post requests, advertising, inbound, etc.

Here the important factor is grouping, prioritizing, and sorting emails using appropriate categories. The biggest advantage of organizing emails is that it becomes a lot easier to spot specific emails. Besides using basic folders one can also consider defining parent categories and building subcategories under the folders.

Allocating Time in the Work Schedule

Keeping aside a certain time slot in the everyday work schedule for sending emails helps in simplifying the process. It is important to take this step because on average people end up checking their email inboxes more than 70 times a day.

This clearly shows that a lot of time, effort, and energy goes into something that does not call for so much engagement. Emails might not be as intrusive as phone calls but put more stress on the user. Working professionals always find themselves concerned about checking emails and eventually lose focus on the actual work. Hence it is vital to allocate a fixed time slot every day to check and reply to emails.

One can choose to do this in one go or pick blocks of time throughout the day for checking emails. It is best to avoid multitasking at the time of checking emails. This helps in eliminating distractions and makes it easier to go through everything.

Stick To 1-minute Rule

The 1-minute rule is highly beneficial to check and manage emails efficiently. For instance, if it takes about a minute to respond to an email do it without delay. This way a person can eliminate sitting on emails that can be responded to instantly. It is also helpful for clearing the inbox quickly.

Convert Group Email Accounts into Shared Inboxes

Organizations typically make use of group email accounts like <support@companyname.com> and <info@companyname.com>. This approach makes it easier for the customers to connect with an organization easily. However, group emails often become as distractive as WhatsApp groups.

There is always a constant stream of incoming messages which is further accentuated as there is no means of assigning emails to individuals and keeping tabs on these tasks.

One must be able to streamline the process of emails reaching groups in inboxes and define a clear workflow to eliminate clutter in the process. Every team member is clear about the idea of what email they need to focus on.

Always Read Top Down Write Bottom Up

This is a unique and effective approach to getting through an overflowing email inbox. Always try and read emails in reverse chronological order and respond to them in chronological order. It proves to be an excellent way to respond to emails quickly avoid getting caught up back and forth and keep the work on track.

Know the Right Time for Sending Emails

Email management becomes all the more important when the volume of emails is high. When it comes to determining the right time for sending emails it mostly depends on the type of work. This is because there are specific functions where employees end up doing most of their everyday activities via email. Teams working with customer success are likely to reach out to existing customers regularly. Email is the best channel for this purpose.

In such circumstances, it is important to ensure that communications are crisp and clear.

Another way of avoiding sending too many emails is to use to connect with clients over phone calls whenever possible. If it is only informing the client about an update emails are more effective.

On the other hand, if it is about checking with a customer and finding what they feel about using a particular product or service a phone call works best.

For tasks related to Lead Generation and Sales (marketing teams send bulk emails), organizations need to make certain that these emails reach the receiver appropriately. If the emails land in the spam folder or bounce back there is a high chance of the domain getting blocked. Hence it is important to verify email addresses before sending an email. With this approach, one can make certain that the emails reach the right person and their efforts do not go to waste.

Touch it Once

Touch it once principal encourages quick decision-making when handling bulk emails. It is referred to as only handle it once method. Here the idea is that revisiting the same set of emails multiple times causes a waste of time. So the best approach is to touch it once take action, file away, and proceed to the next email in line.

This approach might appear simple but in reality, it can get quite overwhelming because people tend to avoid replying to emails. However, it prevents chances of getting distracted by the idea of unanswered emails.

Conclusion

When it comes to email management there is no standard approach so it is important to understand not all strategies discussed above will yield similar results. One might have to try out different methods to see which tips give the best email marketing conversion rate. However, it is always a good idea to take a structured email management approach to see the effects throughout the workflow. Also, consistency helps in keeping inboxes clean and organized at all times.

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