Email is a wonderful tool. It makes sending and receiving mail lightning-fast and means communication can happen in an instant with the click of a mouse; however, at busy times when your inbox just seems to grow, it is essential to be able to manage your mail. For this reason, we have put together a few tips to help you out when it comes to better email management.
It is OK to not reply
It pays to remember that not every email you receive will require a response. If a piece of mail is sent to a large number of people in the workplace or is simply letting you know some news, consider whether you need to reply. As jobs site The Muse points out, as much as one-third of your work time is spent replying to emails. By replying only to those messages that require a response, you could be saving a lot of time.
Set aside some time
Allow yourself a set amount of time in the day that will be used for replying to and sending emails. Learn to stick within this allotted time to ease up on constant checking. Remember that it is OK to occasionally check for emergency emails; otherwise, stick to your limit and keep your stress levels to a minimum.
Utilise time-saving software
Consider utilising software that exports the most important pieces of information from emails. Particularly useful are those that convert PDF to Excel so that those crucial tables are ordered and straight to the point.
Filter, filter, filter
Setting filters on your emails is a really useful way of automatically sifting through them to ensure you are gaining access to the most vital messages while leaving out those that are less important. If you work with large sets of data, it can also be useful to use a PDF to Excel converter, such as https://pdftables.com/, to ensure you are extracting the most important data quickly and professionally.
The next time you find yourself overwhelmed by a never-ending inbox, take a step back and look at this handy guide. Your emails will be ordered instantly and you can spend more time carrying out your work and less time worrying about replying to everything that drops into your inbox!