I’ve been on a roll the last couple of weeks discussing how to deal with emails. I started with why multitasking doesn’t really save you time, and then I gave you some universal do’s and don’ts of email- etiquette. Today, I want to give you three novel ways to save time on email.
1. Forget about filing in folders.
Back in the all-paper days before we went digital (remember?) it was important to file things so we could retrieve things when needed. The inherent weakness in that system it’s that it only worked if we could remember what folder to look under. Enter the digital “search function”. Every email software program now allows you to search by sender, keyword, date, subject, you name it. Just archive it all, and trust that you’ll find it when you need it.
2. Reduce the incoming flood.
Do you subscribe to industry newsletters that you don’t have time to read but are reluctant to delete? Have those emails filtered so they go directly into a “Read Later” folder. Then you can go back and read when you have time. Do you get a lot of spam? Change your spam filter to the highest setting. I used to keep my threshold low to avoid having important email somehow end up in the spam folder. But that meant lots of spam got through and I was constantly wasting time deleting rubbish. So now, I check my spam folder once a day to rescue the occasional pearl that was blocked, and my regular inbox isn’t crowded with junk. Are you subscribed to mailing lists, groups, and causes that no longer interest you? Unsubscribe.
3. Fight technology with technology.
The solution might be an algorithmic filtering app called SaneBox. It “learns” what your most important messages are, shows you those, and files the other stuff in a SaneLater folder. It’ll cost you about $5 a month (after a free trial) but it’s supposed to save you much more in priceless hours. It’s reportedly very effective at “prioritizing important emails and summarizing the rest”. Harvard Business Review editor Sarah Green swears by it.
Those are my three suggestions, what are your email time saving tips? Post them on my Facebook page or reply to me.
© Copyright Eva Del Rio
