5 Rules for Efficient and Effective Emailing
We’ve said it before and we will say it again – email is a fantastic resource (we would definitely be lost without it) and can be incredibly convenient, but it can also be a massive time sink.
Staying in contact with colleagues and clients all over the world and using a medium which does not require you both to be available at the same time is amazing. As is the case with many technological developments, email isn’t, however, always the most efficient or effective way of doing things.
If you have found yourself dedicating far more time to emails than you would like, here’s how to rein it in and spend that time on more value-adding (and income-generating) tasks.
Leave it for later
Email rarely needs to be dealt with first thing in the morning. If you tend to receive urgent emails, check briefly on your computer or mobile when you first log in for any that cannot be left but otherwise, they can wait. Spend the first two or three hours of your working day on more important tasks; the ones that actually earn your money. It may only take a minute or two to reply to an email but doing that 50/100/more times a day will eat your time.
Wind down with email
Why waste that first thing in the morning energy on replying to emails? It doesn’t take much effort so schedule it for later on when you are starting to flag a little. Creative tasks, important decisions and client face-to-face meetings are a far better way to use your best self. Of course, the best use of your most energetic periods of time will depend on your individual circumstances but you should be able to identify it fairly easily.
Dare we say it? Multitask
We don’t normally recommend multitasking but, if you are a believer, email is one task which can be combined with another. It is likely that most of your emails can be read, dealt with and archived without requiring too much brainpower or time, so why not clear some while you’re dealing with another low-intensity task? Just be careful not to slip back into the habit of allowing emails to take over.
Do it in bulk
Set aside a period of time each day to dealing with email. By confining email to a scheduled slot in this way, not only will you stop letting it take over time which could be more valuably spent elsewhere, you are also committing yourself more fully to the emails. We know there may be handful of emails that must be dealt with during the day; fire off an answer to these as quickly as you can and don’t let them interrupt. Leave emails which need a well thought out response for the times where you can concentrate on it.
Set custom alerts
A great tip we came across is using different notification tones for different groups of people. For example, you could set your phone, tablet or computer to use one tone for emails received from senders who need to be responded to urgently, one for clients, one for general newsletter type emails and one for personal mail. You’ll know when you need to respond right away without even having to check your inbox.
If you have any other tips for efficient and effective use of email, please comment below. We would love to hear from you and may even share your tip in a future blog!
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To fully regain control of your time this year, why not book a place on our time management course? There Is Enough Time is an interactive online course, starting in February, where we will share more in-depth knowledge of excellent time management. Who knows what you could achieve?
