Schedule Your Email Checking
People think that constantly looking at your email is productive, but it’s actually the opposite. Excessive checking and worrying that something that will interrupt your current task is self-defeating.
Limit your email checking to no more than four times a day. This is enough for you to thoroughly read each email and give them the proper attention without distracting yourself. The best times to check are:
· Two hours after you arrive at work. Your first two hours should be spent finishing up anything you left hanging yesterday and getting prepped for the day of work you have ahead.
· Two hours before you finish your shift to get any stragglers
Of course, this will depend on your schedule, but generally, you only need to check a few hours after arriving and a few hours before closing to get the most important emails and give them the proper amount of focus. Tasks should always take priority over checking emails.
Make sure your signature includes what times you check your email so they aren’t surprised and will wait for a response appropriately.
Now that you’re checking your email less often, turn off notifications so you don’t get distracted. Focus on your tasks fully instead of having your focus be thrown off by a non-priority email.
Follow the 2 Minute Rule
If you can deal with a message in less than 2 minutes, don’t set it aside. During your scheduled email checks, list down the tasks and sort them by the amount of time you think they will take.
From there, start on the ones that will take less than 2 minutes to do. This shaves off a lot of your work throughout the day and lets you focus on the big tasks. There are many studies that show the benefits of proper time management.
Too often, people believe that more time equals more effort. This is simply not true. If you spend hours aimlessly checking emails as opposed to doing tasks of value, then it’s a waste of resources.
Schedule Some Of Your Emails
Scheduled emails let you do work even when you aren’t on the keyboard. Apps such as Gmail have this feature built-in, with an option to send at a specific date and time before you actually send out your mail.
This is especially useful for maximizing your email’s opening rate as there are times in the day where people are most likely to check their emails. It’s also useful for those working remotely as it makes sure they are still on the clock even if they encounter a quick emergency.
Scheduled emails are also important for maintaining a reputation of being always “on the clock” to your business associates and team. When your emails are still outgoing even when you aren’t actually writing them, it’s kind of like there are two of you working at the same time.
Use Rules and Filters Wherever You Can
For high-volume email jobs, rules and filters are crucial to organization and productivity. Sorting through each mail by hand is incredibly tedious and wastes precious time. Set up rules and filters that sort emails for you from the get-go. They will automatically sort emails that fit a set of criteria into a single folder. Possible rules and filters include:
· High Priority VIPs
· Management Emails
· Company PSAs
· Newsletters
· New Leads
· Sales Invoices
Keywords and filters help you sort out your mail faster and therefore improve your productivity overall.
Be Pickier About Who You Respond To
Start thinking more about whether or not an email is worth responding to. Some emails are just informational and can be left unattended. Other times, some emails only need a simple “yes” or “no”.
Whenever you respond, make sure to leave no room for further questions. This means less email checking and saving time for both you and the recipient. When you encounter an email that does need a more complex response, see if there’s a way for you to talk to them directly.
Email conversations take a long time to resolve. Instead of waiting on emails and refreshing, just give the other person a call, or chat them up on Skype or Slack. This keeps your flow of conversation smoother, and your inbox cleaner.
Use Templates to Streamline Response Time
A lot of the time, you’ll find yourself typing essentially the same thing over and over to dozens or even hundreds of clients. That hampers workplace productivity by a lot because manual typing takes up a lot of time and attention.
Set up a template for your most frequent tasks and responses. For example, if you are sending out a generic acknowledgment of completion for a task, have a template made for that. If they need names or numbers, just leave that spot blank so your only manual typing is those identifiers.
A great email lifehack is using signatures as a template generator in Outlook. This lets you respond to several emails in seconds with only a few clicks. Other email apps have 3rd party tools that have features similar to this as well, just search for them.
Make Use of Add-ons for your Email App
Email apps are already intuitive, but they always benefit from more functionality and features. Add-ons which can be found through simple internet searches could introduce you to some productivity-friendly features. Add-ons are light, non-invasive, and are almost always free (or at the very least, offer a free version).
For example, the Google web store provides thousands of add-ons for Gmail that add features such as simplified UI, enhanced email scheduling, intuitive filters, and ad blockers.
While habits are your main tool for productivity, add-ons are a great way to enhance your workflow without being invasive or complicated. Just add them and watch your email checking experience become much easier.
Include Answers to Frequently Asked Questions in your Email Signature
If you start noticing the same question over and over again in your inbox, and it takes less than a minute to answer, why not include it in your signature? Frequently asked questions could include:
- Important business contact information such as your HR, sales department, or accounting
- Your phone number for immediate concerns
- A link to your company’s rates for services and products
- Your company’s website
Remember though, this should only be for easy questions. Do not just start dumping answers in your signature as that makes your emails look very cluttered and unprofessional. Make sure the answers are easily integrated into your signature and not look forced.
Author’s bio:
Kat is a Molecular Biology Scientist turned Growth Marketing Scientist. During her free time, she loves to write articles related to business, email productivity, and empowering women. She loves to bake but unfortunately, baking doesn’t love her back. She has many things in her arsenal and writing is one of her passion projects.