Recently updated on November 17th, 2022
Email can be quite a nightmare to manage for some of us. In-boxes can quickly get out of hand in a matter of days, taking away the convenience email is supposed to provide.
Aside from managing your mail, the use of email can also be more efficient. Today we are going to talk about taking back control over your inbox and efficiently managing your mail.
If it is not important, you shouldn’t see it
Almost, every email client can filter, organize, & junk mail as soon as it hits your inbox. This process is normally considered to be a rule. Set up these rules to filter important from non-important, thus minimizing the amount of mail you have to sift through on a day-to-day basis.
Avoid the fluff
When writing your emails, try to keep them short and to the point. This approach helps to save time for both parties. You will be writing less, and the recipient will spend less time reading it. All important information included should be clear and concise.
Clean is organized, efficient is peace of mind
Keep your inbox clean. Once an email has been read, file it away, label it, or archive it. It is also OK to delete mail unless it is something you think you would like/need to reference later. I think we have all gone through the hassle of having to crawl through 50 emails to find 1. That is a headache in the making.
Decide when to check your mail
A lot of us have a bad habit of checking and responding to emails as soon as they arrive. This constant disruption of completing your tasks dramatically decreases your productivity. Try checking your mail at particular times in the day, possibly morning, during lunch, and before the end of the day. With these schedules in place, you’ll have large blocks of time dedicated to productive work.
The infamous subject line
The subject line is a really important part of an email. It is one of the first things the recipient sees before opening your mail. It should be informative and deliberate. The subject line can also be used to organize emails for future use. For example:
Subject: NH – Project Name: I used the beginning of the subject to organize me emails
In this example I used NH for Next Horizon, then place the project name after. This can help when to try to recall an email for later for the recipient and sender. If using the search, I could simply reference “NH” & “Project Name”.
Use a signature
Don’t forget to use a signature at the end of your e-mails, it should include your name, company information, contact information, website links, and social networking sites. This information is a reference from emails more times than people think. It can also be used to promote a new website, build your social following, or promote a product/service.
It is ok to use the phone
I know this is an entry about emails, but sometimes it is more efficient to just pick up the phone and talk to someone, rather than exchange multiple emails on one subject.
Find out more about using emails to grab customers!
