Following on from ‘6 Simple Ways to get Organised’ over the next few weeks, I want to share with you my best productivity tips on managing emails, using your diary effectively, organising your paper files plus electronically storing your documents.

So, this post is all about managing your emails.  Do you need to implement some email ground rules?

Not sure where to begin? 

Firstly, the one thing that is worth remembering is that email is meant to be a tool to help you do your work and is not supposed to be your work itself!

 1.       Schedule Time 

Try scheduling specific time slots to process emails and focus for a specific time, then wait until the next allocated time.  This may be mid-morning, lunchtime, mid-afternoon or at the end of the day.

Start at the bottom, work your way up to the most recent email.  Prioritise the important ones and then action the less important ones immediately, it only a takes a minute.

With each email take a moment to think about whether you do really need to reply, as sometimes, no reply after a certain period of time is a reply in itself.  Don’t stress about replying to every single one, reply only if it helps.

Keep your emails short and concise.

 2.       Reduce Disruption and Create Rules

Be ruthless, take the time to unsubscribe to any newsletters/shop offers etc. that you are no longer interested in or create an automatic rule that diverts these emails to a folder ‘Newsletter’ or ‘Read it later’ folder.  This way these types of emails don’t clutter up your inbox and you can read them at quieter times.

Turn off your notification settings on your social media platforms so that you are not constantly bombarded and disrupted by them.  If you really do value these types of emails then create a folder and set up a rule to automatically move them out of your inbox to your ‘Read it later’ folder.

Don’t be afraid of the trash folder, use it, there are lots of emails that require no further action and not worth keeping.

3.       Create Folders

Structure your emails into categories using subfolders.  They will be organised and much simpler to find when searching.

Personally, I prefer to manually file the important emails into my folders i.e from clients/candidates once they’ve landed in my inbox.  These are the important emails that I do not want to neglect.  However, this really is a personal preference – you may prefer to create rules, as above, just don’t forget to check the folder regularly!

Create folders to file your emails and call them logical things so that you can easily find what you are looking for when you are in a hurry.

4.       Categorise and Colour Code

If you are waiting for somebody else’s final confirmation before completing a task, try colour coding the email under ‘categories’ and change the definition to say ‘waiting for X to confirm’.  This is incredibly helpful when working on various projects for different clients.  It’s an easy way to keep track of tasks.  Mark as ‘complete’ once the task is completed and move to relevant folder.

 5.       Utilise Email Signature

Customise your email signature to include all your contact details, including links to your website and LinkedIn profile etc. so that people don’t need to ask how to find you.

Use signature to create templates of wording that you use regularly or for standard responses that you use frequently, saves time continuously retyping the same wording and is easy to tweak as appropriate.

 6.       Synchronise and Check

Synchronise your handheld devices so that you have access to all you need when you are on the go or away from the office, use time on a train or in waiting lounges to deal with those less pressing items in your inbox.

Finally, always take the time to re-read your emails before pressing send.  With our brains racing most of the time it is easy to mistype something or leave something important out.  Ensure you have all the information included in your email the first time as forgetting to attach a document you have referred too, wastes time by you have to send another email!

As always, if you have any tips of your own that work for you when it comes to managing the volume of emails we all receive or how you discipline yourself to switch off from the various beeps and notification alerts, then please do feel free to share them in the comments section below.  We would love to hear from you.