5 Email Management Tips For A Stress Free Inbox
Let’s set the scene.
We’re rolling into the second month of 2022. The kids are back at school, the partner is back in the office and you’re thriving in the peace and quiet as you ease back into the work year.
You’ve got your cup of tea (or coffee, I don’t judge!). You’ve done your morning stretches. Now? You’re opening up your laptop, ready to dive right back in!
Until you notice the little red notification icon above your emails, sitting in double (or triple) digits…
Coming back from any time away will pretty much always be met with an overflowing inbox, which is far from the cruisy first day back we all dream of. That’s why we’re going to kickstart the official work year (because who counts January?)with five, easy email management tips for a stress free inbox.
#1Templates are our friends
Back from holidays? A bunch of new enquiries in your inbox? Need to send almost identical responses to all?
Enter: response templates.
Also known as canned messages, batched responses and the-best-thing-you’ll-ever-implement-in-your-inbox, these templates make it easy for you to get through those new enquiries FAST, with a simple CTRL+C and CTRL+V action saving you a bunch of time.
And they don’t have to be stock standard, super formal messages, either! They can be highly personalised, full of personality and still save you time and energy.
Don’t believe me? Check out this response template I crafted for a client:
Do you see how it’s personal, casual but can be easily transferred across multiple clients? That’s the key indicator of a good, canned message, and it’s the kind of message we need to have on hand for those first few weeks back in the office!
#2 The delete button is ALSO our friend
The average working professional gets around 120 emails every day. That is a LOT of emails to keep track of, let alone read, sort and respond to.
But how many of these 120 odd emails are actually worth the coveted space in your inbox? I’d wager that maybe half of them have a right to be there. If that!
Subscriptions. Cold call emails. Spam. Emails that have been sitting in your inbox unattended to for longer than you’d like to admit (we’ve all been there), and the sender has probably forgotten they’re waiting to hear back! #Eeeek
Instead of spending hours considering each and every email, let your hair down and delete, delete, delete! Be ruthless and don’t waste your precious inbox space with emails that don’t deserve (or never even got permission) to be there!
#3 We’re also a big fan of folders
Folders, categories, labels – depending on which email platform you use, the possibilities for organisation are endless (and can be completely tailored to your style of working).
Individual folders for individual clients? Set them up and shift all your client work into the designated folder.
Prioritising emails from urgent to probably-don’t-ever-need-to-respond-to? Set up a few different folders with varying levels of urgency, spend your morning email session dropping emails into the allocated space, and spend your afternoon session working through them (with the most urgent folder your top priority!).
There are so many ways you can organise your inbox to ease the stress, lighten the mental load and prioritise your emails. Now? It’s up to you to decide how you’re going to make it work for you!
#4 And boundaries. We like boundaries a LOT!
The one thing absolutely no one tells you about running a business? You can set boundaries with your own inbox.
Whether you want to check your inbox once, twice or three times a day, you can allocate set times for responding to emails and turn off email notifications for the rest of the day.
You don’t have to be pulled from your work every time you hear the dreaded chime of Outlook. You don’t have to be readily available to answer emails within the hour. And you don’t have to waste time getting back in the zone, because you’re already distracted now so why not make another cup of tea (or take the dog for a walk, or do anything BUT the task you were meant to be focusing on!).
This is your permission slip to set those boundaries and make your inbox YOURS again!
Want to respond to emails once a day? Set an auto responder telling your people that.
Want to dip in at the start and end of the work day? Set those expectations with your clients, team and suppliers from the get go.
Want to runaway to a deserted island with a suitcase full of mojito mix and never see your inbox again? You might need something a little more involved than inbox boundaries, but we’ve got just the thing…
#5 Still too much? It’s time to outsource
There are so many ways you can make your reduce stress in your inbox, but sometimes? You just need an extra set of hands on board to get it done.
That’s where outsourcing comes in.
Believe it or not, you can just go out and hire another person to jump into your inbox and sort it out for you. They’ll set up your folders, sort your inbox, delete any pesky (and unnecessary) subscription messages and respond to any emails that don’t need your personal touch.
And if you’re wondering who on earth could possibly help you with such a task?
Look no further! Your Head Hali Helper is at your service, ready to ease the burden of back to work stress and simplify your business, one email at a time.
Take your biz to the next level and book your discovery call to see if we’re the right fit.
