Email Management

It’s difficult to stay on top of email volume for anyone. The best method for dealing with too many emails may depend on your personality type as time management specialist Susan Tollefson writes about here: 4 Email Management Styles.

You may or may not fall into one of those categories. You may also be someone who prefers other communication methods. After all, email management is something that you need time and a routine to deal with. […]

How many emails do you have in your Inbox? A few? A few hundred? A few thousand?
If the latter, then you may be one of those email hoarders.
Perhaps you think that you may need to reference those old emails someday. Or perhaps you’re keeping many of them because you want to go back and deal with them when you have more time.

It hasn’t been a problem so far. You’ve got old emails going back […]

 
Follow-up is important for business and for getting things done.
I write here about integrating your follow-up routine with your daily tasks: 3 Simple Paths to a Powerful Follow-Up Routine.
But what if you’re feeling shy about following up on an initial email that got no response?
You’re wondering why that person didn’t respond to you. Are you bugging that person if you follow up?

Lack of follow-up on your part can cause you to lose […]

Did you know that everyone has their own personal email management style? Your style has a strong influence on your approach to managing your email. So it’s helpful to understand those influences and take them into consideration to maximize your productivity.

There are 4 common email management styles. Find the one that best describes you to gain some insight on how you can get things done more efficiently.
Style #1: Losing focus and trouble finishing your email […]

It takes time to get through your daily emails. Even if you follow good email organization (see my blog post here: 4 Steps to Becoming More Responsive), it’s time-consuming to read and respond to emails.
If you find yourself responding in a similar way to certain emails, then you can use Google Inbox canned responses or email templates for higher efficiency.
Let’s say, for example, you get a lot of requests for information that you have to research. […]

Staying on top of email chaos is not easy.
Even after you’ve followed the steps to manage your email inbox (see my blog post here: 4 Steps to Becoming More Responsive), you still need to “deal with” those emails that need a follow-up task. How do you make sure that you get those done, and that they don’t get lost in the daily shuffle?

There may be email invitations to meetings or events or lunch and you […]

It can be stressful to see your Inbox growing out of control. There is also an increased risk of missing important email correspondence. It’s no longer possible to treat your inbox like it’s a to-do list that keeps growing and growing.
The first step towards productive email management is to identify your goals.
For most of us, it means:

Not missing important emails
Not having to spend hours of our time picking out the important emails
Quickly […]

If you practice good email organization, as I write about here: 4 Steps to Becoming More Responsive, you will have an Inbox with emails flagged by priority (more about flagging here: How to Use Email Flagging). Before you can even start with flagging, you need to understand how to prioritize email.
You will prioritize email based on your unique goals.
As a general rule, your top priority should be the emails that you need to act […]

 
Your email inbox can feel cluttered and overwhelming.
Email filtering (see my blog post here: De-Clutter Your Email Inbox) automatically removes the less-important emails. Your email inbox can stay organized with less effort and you won’t miss important communication.

Manually setting up filters in your email program provides the most control over your inbox. It can, however, seem intimidating to learn how to set filters up.
If you don’t want to deal with setting up filters yourself […]

You’re pretty consistent at staying on top of your email. But now you’re going on vacation, or on a business trip, or you know that you’re going to be too busy working on a project. Just the thought of all those unanswered emails piling up while you’re gone from the office is enough to give you a least a little bit of a sinking feeling.
We all experience email hell from time to time. It can […]