Email can be an overlooked skill, but it’s often apparent when people don’t have control of their inbox. They may use their time inefficiently, miss emails, lose important information or fail to respond to email in a timely manner. According to Adobe’s 2019 email usage survey, U.S. adults spend nearly three and a half hours a day on work email. Email prioritization and inbox organization affects employees, their teams, and their clients, so focusing on good email habits is important for everyone’s success.
It’s important to find techniques to manage your email that work for you. Start by understanding your productivity weaknesses. You may struggle with one or more of the following:
Your process for managing email will also vary depending on your role, with whom you work, and your company’s policies. A successful system will allow you to meet deadlines efficiently and predictably without missing details while maintaining email etiquette standards like timely replies, clear and direct emails and subject lines, and proper tone.
Is your inbox overloaded? Tackling a mountain of emails is no easy feat, but some key strategies can make it manageable.
Start by grouping your emails by subject line or by whom it’s from, enabling you to quickly identify and manage entire conversations without having to re-read or dig through emails.
Next, go email-by-email and determine if the message is urgent or important. Urgency implies timeliness, and importance relates to relevance to your role and responsibilities or your company’s goals. Your options for action are simple: you can delete, reply, archive or add it to your to-do list. Reach this verdict quickly – for each email, limit yourself to 30 seconds per decision. When you encounter an unimportant email, delete it. Decluttering reduces stress and streamlines your focus. If you can answer an email in less than a minute, respond to it when you read it. If an email contains information that’s unimportant today but may be vital in the future, file it away.
Now, the remaining emails should represent items on your to-do list. After you take care of anything “on fire,” prioritize the rest of your inbox. Here are some techniques:
While reaching Inbox Zero, the goal of having no emails in your inbox, can be very rewarding and helpful for identifying new tasks, don’t get hung up on it if it’s stressing you out.
Set good habits to prevent email from piling up in the first place. Here are some best practices:
The idea of perfection often gets in the way of good progress. Celebrate any improvement you make toward efficiency and iterate as needed. For continued growth, here are best-practice resources from our blog: