Email Tools and Resources You Can Use to Reduce the Burden of Email Overload
Email is a part of life - one that can be a useful form of communication or one that can continually wear you down with every new ring of the inbox notification. It doesn’t have to be that way. As we have seen over the past several articles, there are options for you to get control over your email inbox. Having a system and process for working and managing your email is, by far, the most important element of successfully overcoming email overload. But there are other tools you can take advantage of to help you take your processes and management even further.
Within almost every email application that is commonly used today, there are powerful support resources built in to assist users in their quest to not be sunk by the seemingly endless flow of messages. Some of the ideas presented below are application specific, but most are available in any modern email application or can be added to the most common email software. Many users are stuck with using what their company provides them, usually Gmail or Microsoft Outlook for business email. I will not be going into detail about any one application. I recently shared some tech tips for Outlook’s iOS application that may be useful in organizing your email on your mobile devices. Some other ideas may be perfect for your personal email management as well, where we all have endless freedom in which applications we use.
Email Rules
The most common business email applications can set up email rules to help you manage your influx of messages. Gmail, Outlook, Apple Mail each allow users to create parameters that will organize and act on your email. Without getting into too much detail, some of these will set at the client level (meaning they work directly from your computer). Others work at the server level (meaning that the rules will apply whether you are on your computer or not.) The advantage of having rules that run at the server level is that you do not have to have your email application open and on for the rules to rule. They will run automatically, avoiding your inbox altogether.
For example, let’s assume you receive a series of reports each day for your store, district, region, or company. They come around the same time each day and are sent from the same person (or from an automated email box). A rule can be created to have those emails automatically moved to a separate email folder. They could be marked as read, forwarded to a different email address, or sent to the trash. This can help keep your inbox from getting burdened with information you do not always need or have a specific routine for. It also ensures you will always know where that information is. I have this rule set up for my inbox. There are a series of reports released for my company at the same time every day, providing a recap of the previous day. I do not always need to see these, so I have them moved to a ‘reports’ folder, marked as read, and for days I don’t need them, I never see them or touch those reports. It may only save a few seconds, but they add up over time. When I need to refer to them, I can immediately go to that folder and find the information I need.
Email rules can typically be set up by different pieces of information contained within the email. This could be by sender, by subject, by keywords, or based on actions you take after the email arrives (i.e. flagged emails). Take some time to explore the options you have in your email application and put your software to work for you.
Application Options
Much like rules, most email applications (both desktop and mobile versions) have other options and tools built in to help you manage your inbox. Here are a few you can check out to see if your email software has these, then employ those that make the most sense for supporting your email system and process.
Snooze This feature lets you send the email away for a specified period of time. You could snooze an email until 6 pm tonight, or tomorrow morning for example. Define a clear process for how you use this, otherwise, you are just ‘kicking the can’ until a later time and it doesn’t really solve your problem.
Schedule later/Send later Scheduling emails works on both ends. Much like snoozing, you can have an incoming email sent back to you at a specific time allowing you to work it then. The ‘send later’ function can be useful if you are working on your email and want to time your outgoing email for a different time frame. As I mentioned in the first article — the more email you send, the more you get back. If you are working through your process and you have a quick reply to someone, it can generate a reply back adding to an inbox you are already trying to work through. Sending at specific times can also be helpful for not overloading your team on nights or weekends. You can work when you want, but send the email at a different time that makes more sense for the receiver. If you work across multiple time zones and want an email at the top of an inbox for someone else at a certain time, scheduling an email can be extremely useful.
Distraction-free/focus modes (inbox pause) Pausing your inbox is a newer feature that can help solve the problem mentioned above. You are working your inbox, send several quick replies to others, and they reply, adding to your inbox. Or, you are working through your process and new emails keep coming in at the top of your list — this can be frustrating. The pause inbox feature can prevent that. This allows you to work your email without more getting piled on top as you work. Obviously, you’ll still have those to deal with later, but it eliminates a potential distraction to the focus it can take to working through a large email box at the end of the day.
Add-ons to other applications and tools Many applications now have the ability to send your email message to other software tools to help your work through them. You can send an email to your task manager for example. This can be a great reference point when you are working through your task inbox. This varies by application, so check several out to see what might work best for you.
Reminders Many email clients and add-on can provide you with a reminder about an email you sent that you want to follow up on. If you send an email today asking for a response, you can set up a reminder for the email to come back in two days if you have not received a response from the receiver of your original email. I spoke to this within the system — anyone can set up the ‘awaiting response' folder, but now some applications can help you with that.
Multi-function (email, calendar, contacts) Again, many modern email applications now provide multiple functions in one place that can help manage your overall communication and planning process. Combining your email, calendar, and contacts can be useful to see it all together versus constantly switching between different applications.
Basic features can go a long way
Using the more powerful tools is important, but not always necessary. You may still be required to use software that doesn’t have some of those functions available. Almost every email application does have some very basic features that can also help your work through your inbox. Most email applications default to sorting your email by date and time received. If you find you need to prioritize responses and your process by who emailed you, shift the sorting of the email to be by sender. A useful tip in working a large collection of unread emails is sorting by subject. For example, if you have been on vacation and have just opened up to hundreds of emails, seeing the collection by subject can allow you to work through those more quickly.
Many times there is a back and forth that occurs via email strings. You don’t always need to read each one, as often the most recent contains everything you need in one place. So if there are ten emails about the same thing, you can archive nine of them and only work from one. It is a quick way to get your email ‘unread’ count down to a more manageable number.
Even filtering read and unread emails can be a good way to sort through an inbox quickly. However, if you follow one of the earlier rules to touch an email once before it is moved to an ‘action' folder, this should not be needed. But there are those occasions that it can come in handy.
Other Options
There are a few other options worth mentioning that fall outside the typical email application that can be very useful in helping to manage your inbox.
SaneBox SaneBox is a service that can be added to almost any email account that helps to make bucketing emails easier. This software sits above your email application and basically applies rules for you in a simpler to set up way. It is driven by artificial intelligence, so your actions over time will continue to train its behavior towards your inbox. I have used this for my personal email to help manage the junk that comes in, the newsletters I get that may not be urgent, or to eliminate emails I no longer want to receive/see. I would recommend checking out their website for more information to see if this makes sense for you. It is a pay for service and can be quite expensive, but there is no doubt it is a time saver.
Quick replies with TextExpander Sometimes you find yourself writing the same thing over and over. It seems like there should be a way to have those common responses available with just a few keystrokes. Now there is. TextExpander allows you to create phrases, sentences, or even full paragraphs of text with just a few taps of the keyboard. The value of this can vary from user to user depending on what type of email you send. I do use TextExpander, albeit in a fairly limited way. I am continuing to look for ways to use it more often. It can be a nice time-saver, so check out their website for more information. There are multiple applications that do this now, so explore text expansion through a Google search to see even more options.
As you can see, there are many ways that you can supplement your email system and process with other tools and resources that can help you succeed. Whether you love email (ok — no one loves email anymore — maybe tolerate) or hate it, it is a part of almost every business's communication process. Even in our personal life, email is a big part of getting information from other people. Whether it is from friends, family, newsletters, or shopping sites, we all get more email than we really want. Over the past several articles, we have explored how you can avoid allowing email to overrun you and overload your days with too much work that feels never-ending. We can all be the masters of our inbox and ensure that email is something we work with and not always against.
What additional tools will you use to help you manage your incoming email?
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