How to Manage Email Overload

If you can manage your email overload, email may be a very useful communication tool. Spam messages are sent to email users worldwide on a daily basis in the amount of 14 billion, significantly raising the daily email volume that users must manage to avoid email overload.

CEOs, managers, and business leaders frequently get hundreds or even thousands of emails every day so reading and replying to every message can become time and energy-consuming.

The good news is that email users have a wealth of options at their disposal for efficient and successful email management. Let's examine ten tested techniques in more detail.

1. Avoid delaying email management
All email users must learn to overcome email management procrastination in order to manage email overload. You've probably experienced it firsthand. You were just anticipating a few emails when you woke up, but when you opened your inbox, there were ten, twenty, or even thirty fresh ones pleading for your attention.

The most significant emails frequently take the longest to process, so they frequently stay in your inbox unopened for days, which is sure to give the senders a terrible image. You should set aside time to read and respond to emails in order to avoid this from happening.

You could, for example, dedicate 10 minutes solely to email management in the morning, 10 minutes around lunchtime, and 10 minutes after work—that’s entirely up to you. Many entrepreneurs like to dedicate 5 to 10 minutes to email every hour.

Just make sure to stick to the allotted time slots and keep yourself from checking your inbox all the time unless you really need to.

2. Use filters
Simple rules known as filters enable you to automatically sort fresh email messages as soon as you receive them. Filters are supported by all widely used email services and clients, and you might be surprised by how much you can accomplish with them.

3. Make Time-Saving Use of Templates
For instance, you can use filters to automatically shift all emails sent by your coworkers to a different folder so you won't have to laboriously sort through spam, promotions, and personal emails to find each email that is connected to your job.

Examine your sent folder carefully. Are there any emails in the folder that resemble one another frequently?  It makes sense to build and use email templates in order to save time because the majority of replies can be divided into only a few categories. Instead of starting from scratch with every reply, just pick the most appropriate email template and make a few word changes.

While some users keep email templates as text files in a folder, others utilize email clients that have built-in support for email templates. Since work-related emails frequently follow a similar format, email templates are especially useful for reducing email overload in the workplace.

4. Terminate Unwanted Subscriptions
Almost every website where you register will want your consent to send you promotional emails. While some websites make an effort to make the question as vague as possible so that you don't realize what you're really being asked to enable, others ask directly.

Unsubscribing from undesirable subscriptions is a far better idea than individually deleting individual promotional emails. Every promotional email must have a simple opt-out option, per the Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing Act of 2003. The majority of marketers include it at the bottom of emails, and they must comply with requests to opt-out within ten days.

The chances are that you have hundreds of active subscriptions, and it would take you hours and perhaps even days to unsubscribe from all of them manually. A bulk un-subscriber like Clean Email can block unwanted senders or unsubscribe from unwanted emails with a single click.

5. Create more email addresses
Generating several email addresses can help you better handle email overload. The ability to strictly separate various email message kinds is made possible by having multiple email accounts. For instance, you can use one email address just for business-related correspondence, one for personal correspondence, and one for subscriptions or online shopping.

When you're too busy to manage all of your email addresses, just concentrate on your most crucial one and deal with the others later. You only need to add them from the settings menu because the majority of email services and applications allow you to manage multiple email accounts from a single location.

If you like the idea of using different email addresses for different purposes but are not keen on actually creating them, you can use a popular Gmail trick to create unlimited siblings of your address. Just add a single plus sign after your email address and then insert any combination of words or numbers to create a personalized version of your main email address. All emails sent to the new email address will end up in your inbox, but you can easily filter them.

6. Be a Search Function Expert
The worst thing you can do when looking for a specific old email message is to page through your inbox and scan the subject lines with your eyes in the hopes of finding it. It's possible that the elusive message is located on the second page, but it's also possible that it's 20 pages away. Even worse, you can miss it and lose hours of time without even realizing it.

Instead, we advise you to utilize the search feature to reduce the number of suspects to a manageable quantity. A specific sender, words in the subject line, or a company address in the email signature can all be searched for.

7. Avoid News via Email
Recently, websites have made the unpleasant habit of requesting visitors' email addresses. They frequently offer a variety of justifications (Don't miss the newest news! A huge save is yours! Limited offer!) as a reason why visitors should provide them with their personal information, assuring them that they won't send any spam emails.

Even while receiving the most recent news and coupons right in your inbox sounds appealing, you should fight the urge and keep your personal email address to yourself. We can assure you that the majority of subscriptions and newsletters you join up for will quickly lose their attraction.

8. Open Additional Communication Channels

Sometimes the best way to manage email overload is to avoid using email in the first place. These days, there are so many other communication apps available to businesses and individuals alike that keeping open just one communication channel doesn't make much sense anymore.  Informal messages between team members can take place on apps such as Slack, Discord, or Microsoft Teams.

9. Improve Your Writing
What about the emails you send to other people? The majority of email management best practices concentrate on handling the emails that other people send to you. You might be shocked to learn how much time the average individual spends composing emails and how much of this time is lost due to bad email writing practices. The majority of commercial and personal emails don't need to appear professional or include formal language, unlike official letters. Clicking the send button is OK as long as the desired message has been delivered.

Try to avoid overloading the recipient with information while drafting emails. If you forget to mention something crucial, the person on the other end can quickly ask for it.

Email overuse is a significant issue that hinders productivity for many people and costs businesses millions in lost time. However, there is a fix for every issue, and email overflow is no exception.

If you would like help managing your email services schedule your complimentary summer business systems assessment with one of our experienced technicians today!

Source: