In the year 2020, we sent and received over 30 billion emails across the globe. A number this big is felt by all our inboxes no matter what we do. This makes it necessary to understand what is email organization. This article explores the same and also gives you 7 email organization tips to choose from.
Email Management- Who’s in Charge?
When it comes to emails, we are desperately trying to rein in the sheer amount of them. Because of this even though we are the ones who make and use emails for our own good, we seem to be at their mercy. This causes undue anxiety and stress of handling email management well. How does one get out of this cycle?
The only solution is a change in perspective. Remember that emails cannot control you if you do not let them. Asserting control over emails is all about following a proper email management strategy using email organization tips like the ones discussed below. So stay informed about what are emails and what is email organization and be the boss of your email inbox.
What is email organization?
Email organization is, as the name suggests, the process of organizing emails. This is done to allow easy access to important emails when need be. It also enables us to shift our focus from the email inbox to other tasks, because emails often serve as a distraction. Thus email organization or email management can help improve productivity while also increasing focus and concentration. Email organization tips can help here.
7 email organization tips for better productivity
Here are 7 email organization tips to help organize your emails in Gmail or any other inbox. These tips can be easily formed into a habit, making email management a breeze.
1. Use email management softwares
Various Gmail email management software for different purposes are now available. These form a prime foundation for your email management strategy. Tools like Mailmanhq, EmailAnalytics, Gmelius, etc are highly recommended for better email management.
Email management softwares functions independently as an app different from your email software. Amongst this, Mailmanhq is easily our top pick amongst email organization tips. It has all the qualities required for easy Gmail email management. With features like Do Not Disturb, batch delivery, VIP lists, etc. make Mailman the best email management software to know how to get to inbox zero Gmail.
2. Be prompt with the email organization tips
Prompt email management works only with a prompt response. But does this mean you must reply to all emails you receive promptly? No! By responding, we mean you need to not leave any email unattended to know how to get to inbox zero Gmail. These responses in email organization tips could be:
- Reply to the email if it will take you less than a minute, or requires no other action.
- If it needs a quick action in order to reply to it, do it right away or star the email to pay attention to it at the earliest.
- If the email will require a longer task to reply to, star it or move it to a ‘respond to later’ folder.
These responses make sure that one does not leave any email without touching or attending. Thus you are always up to date with email management, without compromising on your productivity.
3. Organize your email inbox
Creating different customized folders can help a long way too. Create folders and slot your emails as ‘Important,’ ‘Unimportant,’ and ‘Urgent’ ones, according to the purpose they serve and put them into the allotted folders. You can easily find the emails and read them later. This is one of the most effective email organization tips. Apart from the usual folders to categorize emails, you could also sort your emails up according to sender, topic, or due date. With so many options available, knowing how to get to inbox zero becomes very easy.
4. Delete once you are done
The whole purpose of email organization is to achieve inbox zero. Inbox zero is possible only if we promptly delete the emails once we are through with them. Deleting or archiving emails can be a great way of clearing the inbox while staying on top of your task list.
But some of us might prefer to archive our emails instead of deleting them. In these cases, it can help to check if your company has an internal email management system in place. If it does, you can archive your emails anyway and you can delete your emails without any fear.
5. Defer and Delegate is one of the best email organization tips
We often receive an email that would probably be better for someone else. Either that would be because the email task suits someone else’s expertise, or the task is similar to a task previously handled by the other person. Whichever be the case, delegation can be of great help as one of the email management strategies. Reassigning your email to a more appropriate person makes sure that they do the task with better accuracy. The added bonus of having one less task to do and a lesser email to deal with leads you to the best email organization tips.
6. Unsubscribe
An easy one-third of our email inboxes are stuffed with spam emails. These could be as innocent as a newsletter you signed up for, or as notorious as a subscription you mistakenly asked for. Both of these fill up your work inbox unnecessarily as you clamor around looking for important emails. The easiest way out of this mess is to mass unsubscribe. Softwares like Unroll.me can help you unsubscribe from all kinds of spam within a few clicks. Thus relieving your inbox of unimportant emails and taking it towards inbox zero.
7. Let go of procrastination
Procrastination is an enemy in all spheres of life, mainly email management. We can often have the tendency to delay the responsibility of processing our emails to the next day. Some emails that require a long span of our attention mostly get delayed for weeks because of this. One thumb rule that can be our savior is to deal with our emails the day we receive them. Keeping this task for the next day only burdens your tomorrow’s to-do list. This thumb rule is yet another tip for inbox zero as well as email organization tips.
Use the email organization tips that suit you best
Email organization is a skill that combines time management and productivity to help you make the most of your email inbox. The above email organization tips will suit you according to your email needs and priorities. Hence, various email management softwares help a long way in organizing one’s email inbox and achieving inbox zero.
FAQs
1. Use email management softwares like Mailman.
2. Respond to emails promptly using the 2 minute rule.
3. Delete the emails after you deal with them.
4. Delegate emails if they suit someone else’s responsibilities better.
5. Organize your emails with folders, filters and labels.
1. Organize emails in folders using appropriate filters.
2. Use inbox rules and labels to easily organize incoming emails.
3. Set email processing schedules.
4. Use templates to easily reply to generic emails.
5. Immediately reply to all emails that require less than 2 minutes, rather than delaying them.
Commonly, inboxes come with premade folders like main inbox, sent folder, drafts, spam or junk, and trash.
1. Delete spam folder.
2. Organize emails into filters and folders.
3. Use labels and stars to mark emails as important.
4. Delete old, irrelevant emails.
5. Archive any emails that you have processed but cannot delete.
