In celebration of the end of the National Email Week, we are not just providing you one tip, but 10. These are our 10 popular tips that we shared during the International Clean Out Your Inbox Week, the fourth week in January. It’s a good time to remind us all!
1. Create e-folders to hold action items – avoid using your inbox as a “to do” list
2. Rename received e-mails so that you can search them more effectively
3. Return e-mail requests with phone calls
4. Avoid the tendency to “work” newly received e-mails if they are less important than your current project.
5. Open your e-mail with the intention of sorting your new items, rather than “knocking the easy ones off”
6. Sort your e-mail in order from top to bottom or bottom to top – avoid scrolling
7. Copy only the people who REALLY need to see your message
8. Use “if/then” verbiage. e.g. “Please e-mail me if you haven’t received the package” rather than “Did you receive the pkg?”
9. Turn off automatic send/receive and turn off all dings and flashes. Open your e-mail when it is right for YOU
10. Send less e-mail. The more e-mail you send, the more e-mail you’ll get!
