Too many business professionals waste valuable time constantly checking their emails. Sending emails can also take longer than necessary. Practice email organization and time management to save time when working with email.
Please note that it is not necessary to read all emails when they arrive. For most people, checking business email can be done three times during the day: arriving at the start of the shift, before or after lunch, and before leaving work for the day. However, people in a customer service or support job may need to check their email every hour, such as at the beginning of every hour rather than every minute of the day. The old time management rule for answering inquiries was within 24 hours, however with today’s technology advancements at the end of the business day or each work shift can be a best practice.
If an email is not going to be answered the same day it is read, because it requires more time to think than can currently be devoted to it, use the reminder or notice function in the email system that indicates a deadline for that the response requirement is not forgotten. If the email doesn’t state an expiration date, ask for it or at least let the sender know when to expect a well-considered response. Also, it may take a little more time up front when composing emails, but you can save time and confusion later on if professional email etiquette must be followed when sending business emails.
While it is true that you don’t need to check email as often, no one should let their inbox get too cluttered. A full inbox takes longer to clean in the future. If an email requires a reply, don’t make people wait too long for a reply. If you don’t require a response, decide if you need to save the email or trash it right away. Always clean your inbox at the end of each day at the set time. Also, if emptying the trash is not set to an automatic time period, empty it at the end of each day as well.
When saving emails for future reference, be sure to create folders to archive them. Having folders created for active projects or teams makes it easy to quickly retrieve important communications and forward them when needed. It’s also easy to quickly delete all those old emails when the project is complete or the team is dissolved by deleting the folder. Some email tools allow you to send emails from particular people directly to a folder to verify project tasks during a designated time during the workday. Not only can you set up folders and send them emails with sender information, but it is also possible to filter emails in specific folders based on a word in the subject line.
As a final time-saving tip, when sending mass emails to a particular group or team of people on a regular basis, consider putting their email addresses together in a group ID so that you fill in the “To” field for outgoing messages. be faster. So practice better email organization and time management working with email. Don’t be one of those business professionals who waste valuable time checking emails more often than necessary.
NOTES: For information on email etiquette, see the article “Encouraging Email Etiquette: The Dos and Don’ts”. For more details on Group IDs, see the article titled “Send Emails Faster Using Group Names as Addresses.”
