Email Management: Best Ways To Manage Your Inbox

Team Polymail

As the world of the internet has continued to expand, email has transformed from simple communication to becoming your key to online access. 

With this online access, each webpage and blog has found a way to instantly advertise, filling your inbox with clutter and spam. While some of these emails are alright, we have no interest in reading a large majority of them. 

Email is also an important form of communication for the information you need to see, such as work messages and important documents. These emails can become overwhelming as they continue to pile up, making the task of sorting through them quite stressful. 

The issue of a cluttered inbox is an idea of the past. These tips will help you manage your email and get the most out of your inbox. 

User Adjustments

The first step to managing your emails is adjusting your use. Time should be set aside throughout the day where you will focus on your email. 

Business emails are often packed with needed information that requires your full attention, and trying to squeeze them in throughout the day could leave you skimming important messages and missing the details instead of actually reading and mentally processing them. 

Setting time aside at the beginning and end of the day is ideal. In the morning, you should check through your messages to better understand what needs completed that day and what needs your attention. This is a great time to respond to emails, as it gives the recipient the whole day to respond.

End of the day emails should be your time to check less time sensitive emails, such as advertisements from your vendors. At this time, you’ll also begin organizing items that need completed the next morning. 

Whenever you sit down to check emails, you should have a notepad and calendar with you. This will give you a chance to create a to-do list, with various notes. Email should never be used as your checklist, since this takes you back to your inbox multiple times a day. An advantage of email is the ability to return to the message whenever resolving the subject to ensure the information is correct. 

Throughout the day, you shouldn’t be checking your emails. Being too consumed by your inbox takes away from productivity and ultimately takes away from your company. 

Emails Are Not Urgent

It’s important to remember the urgency of emails. You are sending a message that can be received and read whenever the recipient has time.  If something needs attention immediately, it will most likely not be sent in an email, or a phone call will be followed by an email. 

By responding to emails in the morning and evening, you create the expectation that you will respond, but it often won’t be in the middle of the day. 

This absence of the nagging feeling to constantly check your emails is known as Inbox Zero.

Always thinking about your inbox can be exhausting -- always wondering if a message is important, and if you should go check that email right away. Inbox Zero allows you to forget about your inbox throughout the day so you can put your focus on more productive things, i.e. put zero of your thoughts towards your inbox. 

If your work requires a constant back and forth throughout the day, your inbox is the wrong platform. Instead, use a team messaging platform such as Collaboration by Polymail, which allows interactions in quick, real-time messages. This will keep you away from your inbox both mentally and physically, which will give you back a lot more time than you may think!

Remove Clutter

As you look at your inbox, you’ll find a mass of emails that simply shouldn’t be there. It’s time to clear up your inbox once and for all. 

  • Junk mail is the endless pile of advertising and subscription emails you receive from social media, websites, and when you sign up for rewards programs in stores. Most of these emails are some sort of advertisement or clickbait trying to tempt you to make a purchase. Although you may want some of these emails, like the receipts for your favorite store, they usually create clutter in your inbox. 
  • Spam mail is email that is completely unsolicited and unwanted. We have all received messages from companies that we have never heard of or shopped at. These messages come with a risk of potential phishing or even virus risks, and they should be removed and never opened. 
  • Although your normal day to day work emails are important, they take up a large amount of space in your inbox. This can create difficulty trying to find needed information later. Once you’re done with these emails, they, too, should be removed from your inbox. 

Unsubscriber

Subscriptions can become a hassle, you often need to enter your email to gain access to reward programs, any online account, and those “enter your email and receive ___% off instantly” deals. 

We ultimately agree to these emails, but there’s a way out. The CanSpam Act of 2003 required that any company sending emails such as subscriptions must put an “unsubscribe” option on each email. 

While going through each email to click this button could be time consuming, Polymail has created the Unsubscriber to save you time and irritation. 

Simply link your email to the Unsubscriber and Polymail will begin searching your entire inbox for possible subscriptions. A list will then be generated where you can see each subscription, and an unsubscribe button. 

While you may have spent days going email to email trying to unsubscribe from these messages, it can now be done in minutes. 

Mark As Spam

Spam emails aren’t just annoying, they're also often illegal and quite risky. Since these emails are often operating outside the law, you will most likely not find an unsubscribe button, or it won’t actually work. 

When you mark these emails as spam, the sender's information will be saved and any incoming messages from them will be placed directly in the spam folder. 

To delete previous spam messages, use the search bar at the top and type in the sender’s information. Polymail creates a unique profile for any contact, which will allow you to see any messages they have sent you. From here, you can select all and either move them to the spam folder, or into the trash. 

Folders

Folders will help you clear up your inbox, while keeping the messages organized for possible later use. Consider your inbox the emails you’ve received and haven’t yet organized.

Folders are completely organized to your specific needs. 

Here are some common and helpful folder recommendations to consider: 

  • Attention - Used for emails that need attention either end of day or next morning.
  • Project XYZ - Which can be labeled for the individual project keeping all correspondents and shared media in one location.  
  • Customers [Month] - Keep all customer correspondents in well organized folders
  • Vendors - All receipts and correspondents for sublets and vendors
  • Deals - Some subscriptions will be kept for deals you’ll actually use
  • Complete - While your email should not be used as a checklist, it’s important to move completed emails out of the way to reduce clutter. Complete folders can also be created per organization folder to stay organized, such as a Customer Complete folder. 

Folders are customizable to match your business needs. Attempt to minimize your inbox to new messages or messages that need your attention immediate.

Filters

As new emails come in, you could organize them yourself, or you can add filters to automatically organize the emails as they come in. 

Filters are often placed on the sender, where all messages from a specific sender will be placed in a folder, which is appropriate for organizing your people. 

Filters can also be placed on key features found in the title or messages. If a vendor sends you receipts, advertisements, and general messages from one email this will allow you to organize the emails into their designated folders.

Stay Organized

Now that you have cleared and managed your inbox, you can begin spending less time clicking through junk mail and more time focused on the messages that matter. It’s important to keep up to date on your organization, always creating new folders and filters to grow with your business. 

Utilizing email management softwares from Polymail allows you to spend less time at your computer, and more time managing your business, so if you’re ready to really see what easy email management looks like, click here for your free Polymail trial today!

Sources 

https://www.topresume.com/career-advice

https://www.cnbc.com/2019/09/22/heres-how-many-hours


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