5 Ways to Boost Your Email Productivity Today
Want
a boost? Try using these tips to be more productive with your
email. Your recipients will be glad you did.
Delete.
Archive. Respond. Ignore. Oh, the joys of processing email. We all do it everyday, choosing with lightning speed which messages
are important enough to retain, which ones need an immediate
response, and which ones should be summarily dismissed like a blind
date gone awry. Even the most seasoned email gurus (they do exist,
really) can learn a few more tricks. Here are a few to try when you
login the next time.
1. Read an email once, then act on it
One
of the best ways to manage email is to deal with an incoming missive
on the spot. Here's why. When you "touch" the email, that
takes time. When you label it or archive it, that also takes time.
Later, when you search for it, that takes more time. It's better to
deal with the message once and then get back to your other work. It's
much faster.
2. Forward your emails more often
There's
a tendency to be a little gun-shy about forwarding emails instead of
dealing with them on our own. After all, we're paid to deal with the
messages we receive, right? Well, not always. If a message arrives
that is not really your concern, find the person who should deal with
it and forward the message on. It's out of your inbox and out of your
purview. If there's no response, it's also not your fault.
3. Search like crazy
One
of the keys to getting control of your inbox is to learn how to
search. This is more than just typing in a name or a subject. In
Gmail, you can search by
date range, label, and even find emails you sent to yourself (e.g.,
to:me from:me). Mastering the art of email searches will go a long,
long way in reducing inbox clutter.
4. Get colorful
The
human brain responds to color. When we see green, it means act. When
we see red, it means caution. Most email apps on the Web and or those
that run in Windows let you add a colored flag to your messages, but
it's easy to forget to use them. If you develop a habit of
color-coding important messages (or even flagging the ones that are
not as important) you can work with more fluidity during the
day...and manage all of the extra fluff.
5. Avoid personal folders
Dropping
messages into personal folders is
a dated practice from a long-ago era (with apologies to Bill Gates).
At one time, it was the only way to organize your inbox. Dragging
those messages to a folder takes time and it encourages too much
nit-picky organization of pointless messages that deserve to be
eradicated. I use labels for important emails but otherwise rely
almost entirely on searching.
BY
JOHN
BRANDON
http://www.inc.com/quora/30-avoidable-mistakes-first-time-entrepreneurs-make-repeatedly.html?cid=readmore
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