3 Proven Tips for Email Management Best Practices Outlook
If you’re typing “email management best practices outlook” into your search engine, you are probably in need for some help.
Let me guess. Your inbox is overflowing. There are just not enough hours in the day to attend to all the demands of your inbox. Instead of you controlling your day, it seems like Outlook is controlling you. And you would like to change that.
Don’t worry, friend. I’ve been there and I got you.
In this post, we will walk through why managing your email inbox is important and 3 tips for making your email inbox manageable again that will change your work-life.
Free yourself from email stress!
Reduce the number of emails you get by changing the structure of the emails you send.
Learn how with this simple one-pager.
Reasons Your Inbox Is Overflowing
There are likely several different reasons your email inbox is overflowing in the first place.
Reasons could be a combination of the following:
1. Several newsletter subscriptions, for example: “Hey, the Department of Education has released new guidance on XYZ, check out our latest newsletter.”
2. Automated notifications from different systems your organization uses, for example: “Hey, the procurement department approved your shopping cart.”
3. Organizational culture, meaning your colleagues prefer sending an email over sending an instant message, for example: “Hey, do you know where we have flip charts?”
If You Don’t Start Managing Your Inbox… It Will Manage You.
You have limited control over the sources of the emails you receive. However, not all hope is lost because you do have some control over some things.
Especially subscriptions and automated notifications are emails that you can easily delete or redirect yourself. Organizational culture is a little bit more, however not completely, outside of your control. But, having said that, also don’t underestimate the power of leading by good example.
Reducing the number of and managing the emails you get is important. If you continue on your current path, you may start dreading opening your inbox in the first place. Consequently, you might miss important information that gets buried in all the automated notifications. Ultimately, you don’t get around to doing your actual work. (Because I don’t think your and really anybody’s job title is “Professional Email Responder”?”
So, let’s make a plan to take some action. Let’s turn your email inbox back into the useful, specific communication tool it was created for.
Outlook Email Management Best Practices Help You See What’s Important, While Not Wasting Your Time On What’s Not
I love talking about email. Wherever you look, whether it’s in the education sector or business, email is still the #1 communication tool. And it eats away people’s time and capacity.
Do you know anyone who likes responding to emails?
Me, neither – with the rare exception of the occasional email from my union informing me of future pay increases or my wellness program telling me I qualify for my gym rebate 😉
Anyway, you have ways and tools to manage your inbox to make it manageable again – I promise.
When I started my Office Manager job, I not only received emails regarding myself or my team, I also received emails on behalf of 3 executives. So, I pretty quickly had to develop some strategies to
a) make sure I don’t miss anything that needs my attention and
b) don’t waste my time attending to email that doesn’t deserve my attention.
In the next section, I’ll show you the 3 main strategies I use to manage my email influx.
Strategy #1 Dedicate a Specific Time to Process Email
Tell me the truth. Do you start your work day with checking email? Statistically, yes. So, don’t be ashamed if you’re answer is “yes” as well.
Since I asked, you may already know what I am going to say next:
Starting your day with checking email is a very very VERY bad idea, my friend.
Why? Well, think about it. What happens when you start your day with checking email? You have immediately lost control, because email is full of action items.
I love this quote and I will quote it over and over again: “Everything in your email is someone else’s agenda.” If you want to start your day with your own agenda, keep your email closed for a while.
Every productivity book will tell you that. Here is one book I read on email processing times (in case you need some back up data): Michael Hayet – title of book
Specifically, I suggest: Starting now, you decide how you are going to start your day. And you set aside dedicated time during the day to “process email”.
The dedicated time could be 30min-2 hours depending on what your email volume is. I recommend starting with 30minutes.
What does processing email mean?
Processing is not answering email. Processing is scanning the emails that come through, assessing which ones need either filing, just a simple response and or action on your end.
Dedicating time to process your inbox avoids you being pulled into the email quicksand. In turn, scheduling time to attend to email lets you focus on solely that. Once you’ve processes your inbox, you can close it again. Depending on your job, you may need to do a second processing session later in the day.
I aim for my first processing at 9a.m., and a second round at 1p.m.
Not starting your day with checking email right away, may be difficult at first. I assure you though, once you learn to keep that inbox closed for the first portion of you day, you’re productivity will thrive!
For more on the topic, read: How to be Less Stressed at the Office with This Easy Email Habit
Strategy #2 Use Rules in Outlook
Now that you have set aside dedicated time to attend to your email inbox, let’s make sure you use that time wisely.
The third of the three best practices for managing email in Outlook is using Outlook rules.
During your email processing block of your day, you should only scan incoming emails that deserve your attention.
You would be wasting your capacity if you went through your inbox only to delete irrelevant newsletters, automatic system notifications, etc. Let the machines do that for you.
How? In come “rules for Outlook”.
Read here for more details on how to exactly set up rules in Outlook, click by click: How to Set up Rules for Outlook for Guaranteed Inbox Clarity
Email inbox rules can automatically:
- Delete irrelevant emails
- File other emails into dedicated folders based on criteria you set, for example:
All my time-approval notification emails automatically go into 1 folder called “time approval”
Any email program can set up rules. I even have rules for my 2009 Yahoo email account, such that all concert newsletters go into 1 folder called “fun stuff”.
Email inbox rules guarantee that only emails that need your brainpower and attention are allowed in your inbox folder. The more rules you have, the fewer emails you should be processing daily.
p.s. However, make sure you double check your email rules once in a while, so you continue to have an overview about which emails you have applied rules to.
Strategy #3 Have an Email Folder System
As mentioned above, rules for your emails won’t fully work without folders.
The third strategy for email management best practices Outlook is using an email folder system. While you might delete many emails, others you may want to just file for record-keeping. Folders are a way to organize saved emails. If you need to pull up an email conversation later, it’s easiest if you find the email in a folder.
For example: I have a folder for all conversations on contracts for our operations division. If I need to reference an email on a contract, all I need to do is search within my “Operations Contracts” folder.
Some people may tell you that setting up and using email folders is “busy work”. Busy work usually means that your time is not spent well doing a certain task. Depending on your role and how you personally operate, using folders might not be necessary for you.
Instead, you chould choose to use just 1 big archive folder for all emails you’d want to save.
I, personally, find several email folders very helpful to keep the same type of emails grouped by topic.
I hope these email management best practices outlook were helpful for you, too! Let me know how it’s going for you.
Want More Tips For An Easier Office Life? Consider these Articles:
How to Set up Rules for Outlook for Guaranteed Inbox Clarity
How to be Less Stressed at the Office with This Easy Email Habit
Email Back and Forth: The Best Way to End It For Good
Just Another Day at the Office – A Simple Daily Structure
How to Write a Professional Email Out of Office Notice
3 Proven Tips for Email Management Best Practices Outlook
How to Save an Email as a Template in Outlook
Rule for Gmail Inbox? 7 Easy Clicks to Set Them Up
How to Get Back Your Focus in the Workplace
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How to Share and Email Template in Outlook and Why You Should Do It
How to Set Up a Mail Merge on Word
The Ultimate Guide to Email Subject Line Examples for Meeting Request
How to Organize Files Mac Step by Step Guide
How to Organize Files on Mac Computers
3 Easy Steps to Saving Templates in Outlook Desktop Mac
Here’s What Others Are Saying About Email Management Best Practices Outlook:
https://clean.email/blog/email-management/outlook-email-management
p.s.
One More Thing:
I am sure you would not say “no” to receiving fewer emails altogether. What if I told you there is a way you might not have thought of? A method that will reduce the number of emails you receive… I personally guarantee it!
Curious and willing to learn? Click below to receive your free email template for every future email you’ll write.
Write? Yes. You’ll see.
