The Back Office
Email: Mail @ TheBackOffice.co.uk
  • Home
  • Businesses
    • LinkedIn Profiles
  • CV Writing | LinkedIn Profiles
  • Writing | Formatting
  • Proofreading | Copy Editing
    • Authors
    • Students
  • Contact

Time Management: Email Management

19/1/2013

 
Time_Management,Email_Management,Virtual_PA,Admin_Business_Support,Berkshire
There's no doubt that the internet is a wonderful... so much information available at the click of a mouse.  However, it can also be a double-edged sword with constant emails, newsletters and unsolicited mail (spam).

It seems everyone you ever met - and many you haven't met - want to add you to their email lists, often without your consent, the consequence of which is that every day you are bombarded with emails that clog up your inbox and distract you from your business.

Don't get me wrong; there's some great information out there, but you just need to ration your time otherwise you'll see your productivity levels plummeting.

Here are a few tips for dealing with excessive emails:

  • Be selective about who you give your business card to.  Some networkers simply collect business cards so they can add you to their mailing lists and then send out meaningless "news" letters and emails, aka Spam.
  • Take your email offline and just check in at specific times each day.
  • The same applies for your Blackberry/iPhone, etc. Turn off alerts.  If it's important, they'll phone you.
  • Stop believing that you have to respond to everything immediately.  Unless it's urgent, it can wait.  Imagine that every email is a paper memo or letter and give it some thought before you respond.
  • Unsubscribe from unsolicited mail.  Take care when clicking links - especially in unsolicited emails. Hover your mouse over the link before you click. You should see an information box stating where the link will take you. If you are at all suspicious, email the company directly and put the word "unsubscribe" in the email header. Explain that you don't wish to receive any more emails from them and tell them which email addresses you want to have removed from their mailing list. If you attach the email that you received, that will help them identify and remove your name. This doesn't always have the desired effect, but most times it will.
  • Delete emails that you definitely don't need to keep, eg updates from Twitter.  Better still, go into your Twitter account and change your settings so that you don't receive so many emails. Do the same with LinkedIn, etc.
  • Create "Rules" in your Inbox that will sort incoming emails into specific folders.  For examples emails from Hubspot (one of my favourite subscriptions) will go directly into the Hubspot folder.  I use Outlook but you can do this in most email systems.
  • You can also create a "Rule" for an outgoing email so that it gets filed in a specific folder once it's been sent.  This is really useful when you need to find it up later. You could have different folders for different projects.
  • Create rules to "delete" or "junk" specific emails. This takes a little time to set up but is really worth doing. I do this as I go along now as it just takes a few seconds to set up a rule relating to an unwanted email.  Think carefully when creating the "rule" so that you don't inadvertently junk genuine emails.
  • Check your junk mail regularly to make sure something important hasn't been junked. Then delete the rest.
  • If you regularly find important emails in your junk folder, create a "rule" so that it isn't junked in future.
  • Empty (delete) your "delete" folder regularly. I do this at least once a day, so I can quickly glance through the headers before I delete.  If you allow this folder to get too full, it will take a while to review.
  • If you want to read a particular email but don't have time right now, go to your Inbox (list mode), right-click on the email that you want to read later, and select "Mark as Unread".  Alternatively move it (click and drag) into a folder of your choice. Perhaps call it "Essential Reading" or "Weekend Catch-up".
  • Make more use of folders to organise your workload and use the "flag" system to set reminders against emails. Again, right click on the email and set the reminder. If the email is already open, follow the usual rules to "flag" it up.
  • If you find this all a little overwhelming and too big a job, then just tackle one at a time.  Create one new folder, then create a rule to send all emails from a specific person into that folder. You should get an option to "run the rule now".  That will identify all the relevant emails and move them to the new folder.

Don't become a slave to your Inbox.  Emails can wait - at least for a few hours.

QUICK TIP: If you can't locate an important email, use your computer's "search" facility. Pop a few likely key words in the search box, and you should get a list of possible emails.  Unless you actually double-deleted the email, it'll still be there somewhere so don't panic.  Worst case, ask the sender or recipient to email it to you again.  Could be a useful excuse to phone them anyway.

Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook can also eat into your time if you're not careful, but more about those another time.

I sincerely hope you haven't found this email a distraction! 

Don't forget to get in touch if you need help.

    CV Writer, HR Consultant, Virtual PA

    Author

    Hi, I'm Barbara, owner of The Back Office.
    I've had a portfolio career... Accounts, Office Management, Executive PA, Company Director, HR Manager and Consultant - across a diverse range of companies of all shapes and sizes. 
    Because of my eye for detail and penchant for nit-picking, I was often tasked with due diligence during acquisitions and takeovers, and managed copious amounts of paperwork in extensive corporate and private litigation.
    I also lectured in Business Studies and Secretarial Skills for 10 years on a part time basis for a college in West London where I'd previously studied.
    I've had some amazing and colorful experiences during my career, gained a great skill set and considerable insight... Not much surprises me! 
    These days I enjoy bringing all these skills together to provide comprehensive support to business owners and individuals, who can benefit from my knowledge.
    I love walking, gardening, cooking, reading and travel, and although I'm a totally grounded person, I like to have some fun in the process.
    ​

    Archives

    July 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    May 2012
    April 2012
    March 2012
    December 2011
    October 2011
    May 2011
    September 2010
    May 2010
    March 2010

    Categories

    All
    Acas
    Admin Support
    Agency Workers Regulations
    Alcohol At Work
    Apprentices
    Apprenticeships
    Awards
    Breach Of Contract
    Capability
    Career Planning
    Christmas Party
    Communication
    Communication Skills
    Contract Of Employment
    Customer Relationships
    Customer Service
    Data Protection Act
    Development
    Disciplinary
    Disciplinary Appeal
    Disciplinary Hearings
    Disciplinary Meeting
    Disciplinary Policy
    Disciplinary Procedure
    Discrimination
    Dismissal
    Email Management
    Employability
    Employee Information
    Employer
    Employment Contract
    Employment Tribunal
    Engagement
    Equality
    Equality Act 2010
    Facebook
    Flexible Working
    Goodwill
    Harassment
    Induction
    Investigations
    Job Satisfaction
    Junk Email
    Linkedin
    Loyalty
    Motivation
    National Minimum Wage
    Nmw
    Pay
    Performance Appraisals
    Personal Data
    Probationary Periods
    Raising Of Participation Age
    Recruitment
    Recycling
    Redundancy
    References
    Remuneration
    Reward
    Rpa
    Salary
    Social Media Policy
    Spam
    Staff Benefits
    Staff Retention
    Staff Turnover
    Statement Of Terms And Conditions
    Telephone Sales
    Telephone Service
    Temporary Staff
    Testimonials
    Time Management
    Training
    Transferable Skills
    Tribunal
    Twitter
    Unfair Dismissal
    Victimisation
    Work Experience

Testimonials from our Lovely Clients

Click here to read what our clients say about us.

Contact us:

Email: mail @ TheBackOffice.co.uk
​

The Small Print

Terms and Conditions
Privacy Policy


Copyright: The Back Office: 2009-2021

Copy writing, Blogging, Proofreading, Copy Editing and Document Formatting Services in Reading, Berkshire and across the UK.