Tips to Help You Manage Your Email Effectively

Email is the de facto standard for business communication across organizations at this time. Just as any other type of business information and record, email must be included as part of, and adhered to, the organizational standards addressing information and records.

Email is an extremely useful communication tool in business. Less intrusive than a phone call, email is convenient and fast. It empowers concerned to run their businesses from just about anywhere.

You can communicate with clients and customers, check in with employees and set up important meetings from your office or on the go. But when used inappropriately, email can hinder productivity.

Here are some useful tips for managing your emails effectively!

1. Check Your Mailbox Regularly

Be regular about checking your e-mails. Obviously, this should be as you arrive in the morning, and at the regular intervals to match your work pattern and the number of e-mails you typically receive. If you have continuous connection with your mail server and you do not want to feel pressured about immediately responding, turn off the “You have new e-mail” alert.

2. Using Email Auto Responder

If you are away from office and are unable to access your e-mail for more than a day or so, set auto reply. Example of auto reply: “I am out of the office until [date]. I will respond back to you as soon as possible. If something require immediate attention please contact [person].”

3. Apply “Triage” Techniques

When confronted by a screenful of message assess their importance and prioritize them for action. Action option can range from immediate attention through delegation to ignoring them.

Ways to do this include: 

• Using inbox rules to route message (for example, newsletters) to appropriate folders. 
• Use auto preview to read top part of messages to distinguish what is urgent from what is trivial. 
• Identifying external messages and considering the sender(s) expectation about response time 
• Checking the message length before deciding whether to open it.
• Deleting a message, without opening it, particularly anything that looks like junk or a chain letter. 

4. Taking Action on Time

Do no leave messages accumulating in your inbox; either delete them as soon as they have been read or moved them to appropriate folder(s). However, make a copy of anything important before it is deleted automatically from the company system. Make use of 4Ds - Delete it, Do It, Delegate It, or Defer It.

5. Using Outlook Quick Action

Be selective about whom (external person) you give your address to, if you want to ensure you receive only E-mail that is directly relevant.

6. Organize an inbox with labels, folders and categories. 

Prioritize, group, sort and file messages to keep your inbox organized. Create parent categories for broad subjects such as the following: clients, projects and finances. Then use subcategories to file emails related to specific clients or projects. Before you file a message, ensure the subject line is search-friendly. If it doesn’t accurately describe the content of the email, edit the subject line before it’s categorized and archived.