Overcome the Daily Email Flood – Tips for Controlling Your Email Inbox
Much of what we do, the way we work and spend our time, has undergone a paradigm shift over the last decade and a half. Technology is evolving all the time, and work has turned digital.
Emails are the favoured means of communication, for business, marketing and sales. And since so much is done by email, it’s no surprise that your email inbox is overloaded more often than not. It’s a daily email flood. Like most people, you probably spend more time than you should on sorting your email.
Read on for tips on how to control your email inbox, and prevent the email flood that bothers you so much.
Tip #1: Reply to as many emails as possible at once
One of the biggest mistakes people make is to reply to their emails as and when they appear. Instead, you should bundle together your emails and reply to all of them at the same time. Look to complete similar or identical tasks simultaneously. This would help you save a lot of time and cut the time needed to complete each task by 20%.
Tip #2: Don’t hesitate to block emails
Blocking emails from some people, businesses or organizations can seem to be rude, but you really have no choice here. Block any unwanted email newsletters – you don’t need them in your inbox. Use the “block sender” liberally. This would help you get rid of a lot of the clutter. There’s no reason for you to deal with all the ads and the junk that gets thrown in your direction. Unsubscribe from all unwanted emails. Just block away!
Tip #3: Make it sharp and quick
Your responses should be as short as possible. There’s no reason to spend too much time on responding to an email. Learn to respond as crisply as possible. You should get your point through in not many words. The better and faster you get at responding to emails, the more time you will have on your hands for the things that are more important to you.
Tip #4: Check the emails twice a day
As said earlier, don’t check the emails every time you get one. Just check them once in the morning, after breakfast or when you arrive at work, and check once in the evening, just before leaving for home.
Tip #5: Avoid responding to emails on weekends and holidays
You should instead save weekends and holidays for your family and friends. Perhaps you might want to set up an automated response, which would inform the email sender when you would be available to them – You should include a contact number in the automated response, with strict instructions for it to be used only during an emergency.
Tip #6: Make a filter or label for the emails
So, if you have multiple email addresses for a single account, you can set a label and filter for them. This way, you can separate the business emails from the personal ones. This would save you a lot of time
But there is a better way to do it.
Tip #7: Use a blocking app
FocusMe is a popular website blocker for Windows, Mac and Android. This blocking app will help you overcome the daily flood of emails into your inbox. It comes with a TimeLimiter feature which can be set to ensure that you spend only a limited time each day going through your inbox.
Conclusion
The digital age is upon us, whether one likes it or not. Cutting the clutter and blocking the unessential helps you retain your sanity in such an environment. We hope you liked the tips listed here on controlling the email flood. We look forward to your comments and suggestions.
