Hands up if you struggle with your emails.
C’mon – be honest.
Do you have an overflowing inbox?
Do you find yourself deleting most of your emails without even opening them?
Do you send unread emails into folders for reading ‘later’ and ‘later’ never arrives?
My hand is raised for all three. I am hopeless with managing email. I always have been. I was notorious at my previous employer for having an overloaded mailbox and too many folders to count. While I rarely deleted emails I needed, I would have to use the search function to find anything – there was always too much sitting in there waiting for my attention.
Now that I work from home my issues with email have just worsened. With multiple email accounts I’m having trouble keeping up with all of them. Plus, I’ve been so intent on setting aside time to write that I’ve neglected to set aside time to deal with the endless emails that keep pouring in.
The final straw in this sorry tale? Finding important emails buried deep in my inbox, hidden under the sheer weight of crap that flows in day after day after day. Because I’ve buried my head in the sand for so long I missed opportunities for working with brands and for collaborating with bloggers.
All because I couldn’t manage my emails….
As I’ve shared previously, I’m determined to take blogging seriously this year. Which means I have to start treating it like a business. I have shared my plans for better planning my work so it’s time to put some effort into developing a plan for dealing with my inbox. If I want to be treated and respected as a professional, it’s time I acted as a professional as well!
With that in mind, here are my tips for taking control of your emails:
1. Commit to a full clean up of your inbox. It can’t be a half-arsed effort. If you are going to do this right you have to get down and dirty into your inbox and into all those nasty folders underneath. It’s going to take time and effort to delete the crap out of it. Be ruthless. Commit to a proper job – your inbox will thank you for it!
2. Unsubscribe from email lists. If you are like me, you tend to sign up to a lot of email lists in order to grab free ebooks and to give a blogger or a newsletter a go. If you are finding yourself deleting most of these emails without even opening them, it’s time to reconsider whether you should be subscribed to these lists at all. I recently unsubscribed from close to 50 lists in one day. It can be a painful process but I’m hoping my inbox will love me for the increased space and attention I will be giving it in future.
3. Turn off email notifications. Have you signed up to receive blog or social media notifications via email? It’s worth checking. Some platforms like Twitter automatically tick subscription boxes when you create an account, which leads to a lot of unwanted and unnecessary emails clogging up your inbox. Find the account settings in the social media platform applicable to you and turn off notifications that are being sent to you via email. This has made a huge difference for me – believe me!
4. Review your inbox folder structure. Do you have have folders set up to organise mail that comes into your inbox? They can be a handy tool to help sort out your emails and free up your main inbox but they can also become a burden if you just keep putting mail in them, never to be seen again. Make sure you review them regularly to see if they are still relevant. Can they be deleted? Merged? Updated? A good folder structure will make it easier to find emails in the future and allow you to more efficiently clear out your inbox.
5. Use “rules” and forwarding tools to automatically distribute mail. If you are looking for quick and automatic ways to re-distribute mail away from your inbox, look into setting up rules and auto-forwarding tools. Most email platforms will allow you to do this and it will save time in having to manually move mail items from your inbox into their applicable folders. Well worth investigating, however make time to regularly check the folder as per the tip above!
6. Ensure you have separate inboxes for personal and business email. This might sound obvious but it’s a valuable tip. In my case my personal and business emails come into separate inboxes but then flow into a single inbox so I don’t need to keep logging in and out of gmail. This is convenient for that reason but it has caused all sorts of problems for me in trying to keep up with the sheer volume of mail that is funneled into the one inbox. Separating them will help you keep on top of your business emails and ensure you are not distracted by personal mail instead.
7. Set up template emails to save time when replying to common enquiries. This is a no-brainer when it comes to finding ways to more efficiently manage your inbox. Analyse the type of enquiries most common to you. Is it possible to set up a template that will easily and quickly answer them? Having an email already prepared and ready for minor tweaking will save you hours in the long run. It also brings consistency and professionalism to your writing – a must if you are serious about getting down to business.
8. Set aside a set time everyday to check and respond to emails. This is definitely something I have put in place. I’ve set side 2 periods each day to check emails – between 9 and 9.30am each morning and between 5 and 5.30pm each afternoon. This way I will be able to remain on top of my inbox now I’ve reduced the number and frequency of emails coming in. And now I have templates set up, most responses should be quick and easy. And I should never miss an important opportunity again!
9. Review your subscriptions & notifications once a month. It’s not enough to do the hard work once – you need to keep reviewing your subscriptions and notifications regularly to ensure you stay on track. Set time aside every month to have another review of your inbox. Check to see if more notifications are creeping in. Review all existing subscriptions – if you haven’t read them in detail in the month following the big clean up go forth and unsubscribe. It’s up to you to ensure your inbox is working FOR you and not AGAINST you.
10. Consider setting up an auto-responder to ensure business emails are acknowledged. To tie everything else together, ensuring all enquiries are responded to automatically is a must. Again, auto-responders can cause issues if you then don’t follow up with a proper response within 48 hours but used correctly, they can be a powerful and professional tool for your inbox. An auto-responder can allow you time to formulate a proper response or to complete other priorities before tackling your inbox. It’s well worth considering if you are serious about taking control of your emails.
I really do need to clear out my emails. I keep getting notifications all the time from Twitter and I almost never use Twitter these days. It’s a shame you missed out on those blogging opportunities, but I’m sure many more will be coming your way soon! Thanks for the tips.
Ness recently posted…Soggy Sandwiches And Other Sagas
It’s not all bad – it just makes me look rather careless and not up with things! I’ve enjoyed not having so many emails land in my inbox now that I’ve cleaned it out. I really had no idea that i had subscribed to quite so many things…!
Kirsty Russell recently posted…NDIS: An Overview
I turned off most of my notifications last year and it saved me big time. They were doing my head in! I also removed my email app from my phone, only because I found that I was reading emails when I received them but not actioning them. Some great tips! Wishing you lots of luck with your blog for 2015! Cheers for linking with the Lounge!
Robo recently posted…Just 140 Words Today
The notifications thing has been huge for me – it really was messing with my head. Good tip too about deleting the email app from your phone. That’s why I’m setting aside time every day just for emails. That way I can read them AND action them!!!
Oh I need to do this. Up to 2000 hanging out in my inbox and notifications and email lists are a huge culprit. Getting to work right now.
Go you! I forgot to add a bonus 11th tip – if it all seems too hard delete everything in your inbox and folders or delete your account and start afresh. Drastic but maybe a more palatable alternative to anyone who finds the idea of spending hours sorting through their email too much hard work! Good luck with your cull Ginger.
Some great and timely tips there Kirsty! You know what – I was the Queen of email management when I worked in my previous corporate life. Total organisation and control!! At home – disaster! I have 4 email accounts to keep up with. I never delete anything. I miss or overlook emails. How can this be? I am like Jekyll and Hyde (one person out in the corporate world and another in the home environment)! Your post has reminded me that I really should set aside some time and start getting some order into these FOUR email accounts *sigh*!! 😉 x
Min@WriteoftheMiddle recently posted…All about that bag
I have 4 email accounts too, they just flow into the one inbox. While this is a great idea in theory I had way too many personal emails clogging up my inbox which led me to miss some awesome opportunities. I didn’t take a count but I have unsubscribed from more than 20 blogs (I now follow via Bloglovin and FB), 40 or so business pages and I’ve removed notifications from 10 social media platforms. I’m still unsubscribing as emails come in that weren’t present in the first cull and it’s already made a huge difference. Definitely make the time for it Min – it’s definitely an investment in you sanity!
My problem is I have too much flagged. The flagged list drops below the main inbox. I guess that means I’m not prioritising my flagged mail.
Sally@Toddlers on Tour recently posted…5 Things I’ve Learnt Booking Flights to Bali
You’ve probably hit the nail on the head there Sally. I ended up giving up on flagging email a long time ago for this very reason – I would flag far too many and still never get around to reading or dealing with them. I hope you can tackle it head on so you inbox is manageable again!
You will love to hear that my inbox currently has 23,000 emails in it!! Yep, I file most of my emails: Everything from online purchases, tax receipts, school related etc. I love that I can instantly search up any purchase from several years ago or whatever I need. I will not delete anything and this system has saved me so many times.
Great tips by the way!
Jody at Six Little Hearts recently posted…Hippo Blue Review and Giveaway #SLHFeaturedThursdays
Wow – 23,000! If you have a system and you can find what you need and not lose track of everything, go for it. I wish I was so capable – alas, I am not!!!!
My email is a total mess, completely chaotic (a little like me) – I’m sure I miss so many things because of it, I’m so tempted just to delete everything and start afresh.
Sarah Mac recently posted…Packing Tips And Other Useful Stuff (no, not really 😉
I should have made that my bonus 11th tip – delete all the mails or the inbox itself! It would be effective and save a lot of work if there was nothing in there of importance to you…
I am a shocker at checking my emails!! Great tips though!!
ann recently posted…Things I Know #49- Technology can bite me
Part of my current issues stemmed from when I was going back and forth to Sydney to support my parents when dad was in hospital and the emails just banked up and up. I’ve spent February trying to get back on track but realised I had to do something drastic about the sheer number of emails coming in. My other alternative was just to delete all – which was VERY tempting too!
I was feeling bad with 7317 unread emails in my Inbox until I saw above someone has 23000! Great advice here which I will be taking on board. One day 🙂
Pinky Poinker recently posted…Cloudy with a Chance of Bullshit.
I used to be really good at keeping on top of my emails but they have been slowly swamping me recently. I need to find the time to sit down and sort through them all. I even created a folder – important to read later – and everything is still just sitting there unread.
Malinda @mybrownpaperpackages recently posted…Comment on Friday Favourite Champagne Cartel by Carolyn @ Champagne Cartel
Fabulous tips – my email is the one things I dread the most so thank you for inspiring me to tackle it xx
Sonia Life Love Hiccups recently posted…Shitty Dinks and Lovely Links