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I am a sucker for productivity hacks and organizational aids. Nothing is worse than returning from a long weekend or a vacation to find an inbox full of 1,583 emails. Here are nine tips to help you through not only the “out of the office” scenario, but the daily chaos as well:
- Folders: I am an organization nut. My closet is organized by season and color, and my email inbox is similar. You might number your folders for ease of use. My folders are numbered as follows: 1 - Clients, 2 - Prospects 3 - Business 4 - Downline 5 - To Do, 6 - Finances. Within those folders, you can create subfolders. I have one for each client and each team member, and I break down my To Do and Finances folders into Personal and Business. Setting up these folders takes just a few minutes and can easily be adjusted to best suit your needs.
- Filters: They say diamonds are a girl’s best friend; well, filters are my best friend. I set them up for everything: clients, newsletters, team members, etc. Every time an email enters my inbox (if it is from an existing contact) it is automatically labeled using the filters feature. You can create an automatic filter to move messages to a specific folder that you will check in your “free time.” Items like newsletters, membership updates and bills can be automatically sent to your To Do folder to address during a specific time each day. This prevents them from clogging up your inbox and distracting you during normal business hours. Oh, those pesky spam emails that keep getting sent to you no matter how many times you unsubscribe? Set up a filter to automatically mark as spam and delete – bye, bye!
- Star Feature: When an email does reach your inbox, take 30 seconds max to evaluate:
o Is it urgent? If so, deal with it.
o Does it need a simple response? Then just answer it now.
o Can you forward to a team member to take care of? Then forward it.
o If the answer to all these questions is “no,” my solution is to star it (mark it as important) and go back to it when I have more time to focus later in the day.
- Time block: Block out specific time during the day to check your inbox. Or use 45/15 rule or 90/30 rule (whatever works best). Only have your inbox open for 15 minutes. Star items that will take longer for a response. Go back to them later. A tool that can help with this is Pomodoro that you can have on your browser. All of these are methods to help you have a very focused and productive block of time followed by a scheduled and timed break before your next productive time block. This allows you to schedule your time wisely and reward yourself with a little “down time” throughout your work day.
- Email templates: Google and Outlook have great “canned response” tools that most people don’t know about. These let you set up templates to answer questions or respond to emails that come up frequently. Think of FAQs, meeting reminders, scheduling meetings or placing orders,. The templates only take a few minutes to create. Once they are done, they are done; you don’t have to spend valuable time giving someone directions to your office for the tenth time in one day.
- Online scheduling tool: Tired of the back-and-forth emails when trying to schedule a meeting? There are tools that you can use for scheduling. I currently use Google Schedule and Assitant.to. These are both free. There are options out there that are more robust with more features. Schedule Once, for example, sends automatic email reminders for you.
