Foundations for Managing Email Overload
Taming the email inbox is a quest many people try to tackle on their own, not realizing how challenging it can be. There is no shortage of information about managing email, yet it remains one of the most common obstacles I hear from any retail leader. I admit I find myself struggling with it at times. I have done a lot of research and learning on the subject over the years. It does take practice, patience, time, and discipline to succeed in making email work for you instead of the other way around. It is just like everything else: when you have a plan, a system, and support you can succeed. When you let it go and stop maintaining it, it gets out of control.
One of the first steps to take in getting control of your email inbox is to enlist the help of system support. Almost every email application actually has tools built in to help you manage your email. Something as simple as a folder is a method of managing the madness. We’ll talk about folders in this article as well as some other basic tools and steps you can take to have your applications help you stay ahead.
Before we get into automation and rules for inboxes, let’s cover two quick steps that you can take that can help manage what comes into your inbox and when.
Tell others how you manage email
As you begin to establish new behaviors and workflows for how you manage email, you will want to tell others, especially those you work with regularly, how you are changing your habits. If you have been chained to your email or check it every fifteen minutes and you suddenly stop responding quickly, people will wonder what happened. You should not need to respond that quickly. Explain to others that you will only be checking email at certain times of the day and let them know how they can reach you for urgent messages. I have even seen people use the ‘out of office’ message option to let people know how and when they work email. This could be a good idea, I only caution that some people see that auto-response and assume you are on vacation and may not read the message you are actually conveying.
For District Managers or other upper-level supervisors, please do not put your team in a position where they feel the need to respond that quickly to your emails. You are definitely taking them away from more productive work they can be doing. If you need something urgent, establish other communication alternatives to get those truly urgent requests. Otherwise, email should have nothing less than a four-hour response window. That lets people break the day up and check at specific times of the day.
Check boxes matter and other unsubscribe options
Another easy step you can take to help manage what gets to your inbox is to not subscribe to emails from other people or businesses. Watching for the checkboxes when you sign up for a new service or make a purchase can make a difference in how many emails you receive from them. This applies to all of your email boxes, personal or business. We are asked for our email address for many things. Sometimes watching for the opt-in or opt-out options can save you a lot of time later to prevent unsolicited email from ever coming.
Don’t be afraid to unsubscribe from emails or newsletters that you no longer want. That said, be cautious about which emails you use the unsubscribe button for. Sometimes spam emails are actually just trying to verify that your email address works and is managed. In these cases, by unsubscribing you validate that an actual person uses your email address, and suddenly, you end up with even more email. We’ll explore some options below and later in the series on what you can do to prevent that from happening. But for emails from reputable companies or services that you know, you can safely click the unsubscribe link that should be contained within every email they send. It may seem easy to delete these emails when they arrive, but they begin to add up over time. If you don’t need or want the information anymore — opt out and stop getting them. You can always re-subscribe later if you change your mind.
Those are a couple of the things you can do even before email makes it to your inbox that can help you manage what eventually does arrive. Now let’s look at some things that you can do within your email application or on your device(s).
The use of folders or lack thereof
Once upon a time, there was a need for many folders within our email applications. When I started using Microsoft Outlook, I had a folder for different people, different subjects, or categories. I was meticulous in getting email messages into the right folder so I could easily find it again later if I needed to. It was time-consuming, but email was a little simpler then and it was handy to go to a folder to find something versus looking through a long list of emails.
It felt familiar because, after all, we used to put papers in file folders and file cabinets, so it made sense to do the same thing with our electronic correspondence as well. However, as email, and more importantly, email applications have evolved, the need for folders has begun to fade. I have dropped the need for most folders from my email process and now use an archive folder and the search function of any application. I primarily use Apple Mail for my personal email and Microsoft Outlook for work email (desktop and mobile apps) and the search capability on both is outstanding. It does take some practice, but you can find almost anything quickly by using search. If you are still using folders, which requires more time and effort to manage each message, I highly recommend you give the single folder life a try. In most cases, a single swipe or keyboard shortcut will move that message for you quickly.
Use your application rules
Something that almost every email application has built in is the ability to set up rules to handle common emails. Typically, this can be set to manage by sender, receiver, subject, with or without attachments, and a host of other options. The potential uses and recommendations are too numerous for this article, but I would recommend playing with the rules function in your email application. This is worth some extra research and time to get some basic rules in place. For example, I have certain reports that are sent to me every day. They come from the same sender with the same subject line — even if the date changes, I can handle these with a rule.
In this case, I have each of the emails set up to be handled the same way. The application ‘marks them as read,’ and ‘moves them to a ‘reports’ folder. I never see those in my inbox. I always know if I need that information, it will be in the reports folder for quick access. You can do that any number of messages that may be hitting your inbox. It is a quick time save that keeps me from managing a handful of reports each day. They do add up over time. Microsoft Outlook, Gmail, and Apple Mail all have rules that can easily be set up to help you too. There are nuances on how rules work and when they can run, but even with those, it is worth it to set up rules for your inbox too.
Automation can be your friend
Folders that you have to manually move emails into may be out, but if you have certain people or subjects that could be categorized with each email, your application may be able to handle that for you. The idea of Smart Folders is an extension of the concept of rules discussed above. Smart Folders in some applications (Outlook) is really a saved search. For example, I can have a smart folder for all emails from my boss. Even if I archive the original message, the smart folder will always have just the emails from him for me to quickly reference. It is similar to setting up VIPs in other email applications. As long as you can establish a commonality with any email you want to sort, a smart folder or saved search will work for you. It is definitely worth spending some time to set up and learn more about to allow your email application to help you manage your inbox. In some cases, you may not even need that email to hit your inbox, it could just go directly to your smart folder to manage from there.
We will explore some further automation ideas in a later article, but take some time now to begin investigating what options may be available on your phone email application or your desktop application that can help you stay ahead of what is coming into your inbox.
Managing email can be a team or automation sport. Take advantage of the tools and resources that are available to support you in your quest for email freedom. Simple things like setting parameters for your time and how you respond to emails lay a strong foundation for success in this area. Unsubscribing or not subscribing in the first place is also a good way to begin cutting down on the information that hits your digital inboxes.
Instead of a question today — here is a challenge — unsubscribe from at least two emails that you really don’t need anymore. Then set up at least one rule that will help manage and move email out of your inbox.
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