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Managing emails can seem like a daunting task! Especially if you have let it go for far too long without managing it. Don’t let that stop you though! Here are 6 quick and easy tips so you can reach email management success!
1) Managing Emails with Nothing in Your Inbox
Keeping your inbox empty is like having a clean desk. All the papers on your desk have a place and are filed away neatly. So why shouldn’t your emails and inbox be the same way? Managing emails and keeping your inbox empty will give you a feeling of satisfaction and accomplishment. It will help your work day run more smoothly.
2) Start with a Clean Slate
Some people get to a point with their inbox that they have so many messages that it seems as though there is no way to get a handle on it. That’s when you just have to bite the bullet, select all, and delete. The bottom line? If you have an email that required a response a month ago, nine times out of ten, they have already moved on. You should too!
3) Touch It Once
Once you receive an email wait until you can review it and give it the attention it needs. After you have devoted your time and effort to that email you then need to do something with it. Whether that means deleting it, saving it in a folder, or forwarding it off to someone once you are finished with it. Getting into this habit will increase productivity and free up a lot of the time that you use coming back to the same email over and over.
4) Put It Somewhere
In order to get into the Touch It Once habit, you must make decisions on what the next step will be and commit to doing it at that moment. You can do this by implementing the following:
Respond to It – If the email comes in and you can give it a quick response, do it and move on to the next step immediately.
Folder – If it is an email that you will need for future reference then put it into a quickly identifiable folder that you can access easily when needed.
Delete – If it is an email you don’t need and/or are finished with completely, just delete it.
Make it stick and commit!
5) Unsubscribe
Everyone with an email address receives useless emails and newsletters that they don’t actually read. We usually only end up spending time deleting them. Typically, we don’t have time to read them all. We’ve probably lost interest, or we signed up unintentionally, so they just pile up and overwhelm us and our inbox. Instead of letting your inbox get full of unwanted, unread emails, spend the time you would have used to delete them and unsubscribe. This will really help scale down the clutter.
6) Schedule the Delete Button
The truth is we get bogged down with meetings, keep a full schedule, have time off from work that we aren’t accessing our email, or all of the above and sometimes it’s not exactly feasible to keep our inbox empty daily. What you can do is schedule a time weekly or twice a month to go through and start managing emails. Really set aside time as you would for any other required task to delete, unsubscribe, organize emails into folders, and respond to matters that need your attention. This will keep you on track and keep your inbox manageable.
All of the tips above are great ways to manage your email. Hopefully, you find them quick and easy to implement so that you can reach email management success!
Do you have more great tips for managing your emails? Share what’s worked for you in the comments below!
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