Email Management Made Easy: Four Tips for Organization Success

Nearly half of the workweek for the majority of people in the workforce, includign administrative professionals, is devoted to reading and replying to emails and email management. 

As an admin, your life will certainly be easier if you can better organize and structure how you handle emails. Let's examine some tried-and-true email management techniques and methods.

Schedule Time for Email on Your Calendar

Schedule dedicated time for checking your emails, precisely as you do for other tasks on your calendar.

As administrative professionals, we frequently worry about emails, continually checking our inbox, and often end up losing sight of the issues that matter. That takes us to the most basic tactic, which is to set up a certain period each day to deal with email.

You might complete this task all at once or set aside time each day only for email. It’s also best to refrain from multitasking when checking your emails. That's because it's simpler to get everything done when you avoid distractions and maintain your focus.

Make Classifications, Folders, and Labels

The structure is one strategy for streamlining email administration. Setting up labels, folders, and categories is required. Remember that no universal guideline applies to the development of categories. 

The answer would entirely rely on the individual, the emails they get, and the best way for them to organize their communications. For instance, a person in business would want several files. One for bills, one for payments, and so forth. 

A marketer could have folders for incoming requests, submissions, and advertising. This can be made easier with certain email management software.

If you don’t have email management software, then the secret is to categorize, prioritize, and gather emails into groups. The biggest advantage of doing this is that it can become very simple to find certain emails with only a few clicks.

Look at One Email at a Time

The touch-it-once approach relies on making rapid judgments while dealing with emails. The notion here is that going through one email again and again is a waste of time. 

Therefore, you touch it once, act on it, file it, and then go on to the next email. The touch-it-once approach may appear simple, but could be difficult to apply since some people tend to postpone responding to emails and overthink how to respond. 

However, adopting this approach is essential, because most of us deal with significant amounts of email each day. Looking at it once and then acting on the email prevents you from being continuously sidetracked by the prospect of unanswered emails, which can significantly reduce your productivity.

Apply the One-Minute Rule

The one-minute rule allows you to better manage your emails and your time. It entails responding to an email just takes a minute, do it right away. If you do this you won’t waste time sitting on emails that can be acted on immediately and filed away. This also expedites the clearing of your inbox.

It's crucial to keep in mind that there is no set method for email management, so not every one of these tactics will be effective for you. It could take some trial and error to determine what works best for you and to put this new knowledge into action.