Emails can be overwhelming.
We sometimes find ourselves too invested in browsing newsletters and work updates—in fact, employees tend to spend 28% of their working time reading and answering emails. If that will be converted into everyday work, that means spending over three hours managing emails (and reading them).
Because email is inevitable at work, it’s important to manage our emails to remain productive–and not spend long hours getting lost in best regards and respectfully yours. With efficient email management, not only will you boost productivity–you’d also save time to get more things done.
If you’re wondering how to manage your email properly, read on and get ready to Marie Kondo your inbox.
Table of Contents:
- Maintain an organized inbox
- Don’t let your email pile up
- Don’t ask open-ended questions
- Use email management tools
- Get rid of long email threads
- Cut down too many email subscriptions
- Schedule your email routine
- Take advantage of templates
- Automate your responses
- Delete forever
Read more: What Are The Ways To Beat Distraction?
How to manage your email?
Maintain an organized inbox
Don’t underestimate the power of filters and subfolders—they’re invented for a reason. You can use the built-in features in your email for a much more organized inbox, such as importance, groups, or mentions. Sorting your email according to their importance or moving them into a destined folder will let you focus on what needs to be responded to first, or separate unnecessary to necessary.
Don’t let your email pile up
Reading a bunch of unread emails is always a chore—prevent emails from piling up firsthand by addressing them immediately. If an email is unnecessary, archive it right away. If a mail needs to be responded to now, then take the time to hit reply. Leaving mails for later won’t only cause delays, it will also pile up your email which can lead to disorganization.
Don’t ask open-ended questions
The thing is, nobody likes white noise in emails–be straightforward and clear. Asking open-ended questions in emails can lead to heavy miscommunications and longer threads–whereas straight-to-the-point emails will always keep the conversation short and efficient.
Use email management tools
The good news is, you don’t have to be alone when managing your emails—it’s totally fine to rely on technology. With the help of email management tools, you can manage your emails right away and be more productive.
There are tons of tools for email management online, that’s why it’s important to know which aspect of the email you’d like to specifically manage. Choosing a lot of tools can do more harm than good, so you must take the time to know which works following your objective. When choosing a tool, ask yourself these questions:
Do I want to manage my mailing list?
Are you an email marketer or a blogger who wants to send out newsletters and content through email? If yes, managing your mailing list is a top priority—this will help you to brush up your list, get rid of spam emails, and retain quality subscribers.
Do I want to manage several email accounts?
We’ve got work and personal email accounts for a reason—to separate emails from each other. Though this works most of the time, it can be confusing to switch accounts. To address this, find an email management tool that can link your email accounts to one mailbox for easy access.
Do I want to clean my subscription list?
Subscribing to different newsletters can cause too much and irrelevant emails. If you want to clean your subscription list but don’t have the time to go over every single account to unsubscribe, find a tool that can do the job in one swift.
Do you want to highlight your follow-up reminders?
Thousands of emails in the inbox can make it difficult to monitor follow-ups. Thus, you might consider searching for a tool that can help you set time and reminders for the most important emails that you have to follow up.
Pro tip: Aside from making online fillable PDFs, PlatoForms’ form invitation feature allows you to send out online web forms to your users in email—you can set out the password for security, set the availability of your forms, and allow one-time submissions for accuracy. Learn more here.
Get rid of long email threads
Email threads can be helpful—but it usually just stretches the conversation long, which can lead to confusion and worse, miscommunication. Avoid replying to the same thread if you’re asking about a different topic. Make your subject lines concise and specific, to avoid longer fluffs.
Cut down too many email subscriptions
Think it’s not relevant to receive that monthly newsletter that you subscribed to years ago? Starting anew is also applicable in emails—it’s time to click the unsubscribe button for a fresh email start. Know which accounts are worth keeping and which accounts aren’t, to avoid clunking your inbox.
Pro tip: PlatoForms converts your PDFs to an online form and lets you create email templates to save time. With our email template, you don’t have to type over and over again–just save it, reuse it, and rename it. Know more here.
Schedule your email routine
One of the most effective ways how to manage your email is to set a definite schedule and routine on going through it. Do you prefer to check emails right after you clock in at work or in the middle of the shift? Whether you like to spend half an hour or so managing your email, stick to a consistent schedule and make sure to time yourself. This way, you can track if you’re spending too much time browsing through your inbox.
Take advantage of templates
Templates do silent wonders—their ability to save time is underrated.
Allowing you to type only once and just copy-paste it for future use, you don’t have to worry about curating messages every time. You can create different drafts of templates that you typically use and just send them regularly (Just don’t forget to customize). For example, our email template feature here at PlatoForms lets you create a template that you can save, rename, and reuse for future uses. This way, you don’t have to go back and type the same thing again—boosting your productivity and saving time.
Automate your responses
Before app integration and workflow automation, emails have been using the power of automating responses to boost productivity. On a holiday break? Automate your response. On a leave and will be back in a day or so? Take your out-of-office response template, set a timer, and automatically send it.
Delete forever
Don’t let your unnecessary emails and archive sit in your inbox for ages—hit that delete and empty trash to declutter. Deleting your emails doesn’t only clean up your inbox storage, it always gives a sense of ‘restarting’ (and aesthetic) feel.
Manage your email and boost productivity with PlatoForms
Wondering how you can manage your email with PlatoForms? Aside from letting you make online fillable PDFs, you can also use our email template feature that can save your time and effort. Learn more about our email template feature here.
