The number of emails we receive every day has been increasing for years. The corona pandemic and the associated work in the home office has once again accelerated this development:many small things that were briefly discussed at the desk a few months ago are now clarified by e-mail. Email can be a real productivity killer and a constant source of distraction. We have therefore put together five tips on how you can reduce the number of incoming emails, organize your inbox better and thus work more productively.
Check the mailbox only at certain times
Emails are not so destructive because of the sheer reading time, but because they constantly interrupt our work processes. Hardly any customer or colleague expects an immediate answer. Therefore, always deactivate your e-mail notifications and set fixed times to check your inbox. For example, you could set aside five to ten minutes every hour to read new messages or – more radically – read emails only twice a day, around 11 a.m. and 3 p.m. Intermediate solutions are of course also possible here. It can be useful to include a short indication in the signature when emails are read.
Decide immediately via email
Many of us suffer from completely overcrowded and chaotic inboxes. This leads to emails being read unnecessarily over and over again. The result is a lot of time wasted. Therefore, you must make a decision about how to treat each email for the first time immediately after reading it:reply briefly, delegate to a colleague, move it to the appropriate subfolder or category (or use an appropriate tag if you email client allows this) or remove it completely.
Unsubscribe from newsletters you never read
In addition to better organizing your own mailbox, it is of course also crucial to reduce the volume of incoming e-mails. For example, check all the newsletters you have subscribed to. You can certainly miss many of them. You must unsubscribe at least once in the past week from any newsletter that did not direct you to an exciting and relevant article.
Send fewer emails yourself
It's very simple:if we write fewer emails ourselves, it also reduces the number of emails we receive. For example, you should always keep the number of CC receivers as small as possible. This also prevents coordination problems and confusion about responsibilities. You should even do without BCC receivers altogether. This function is only necessary in individual cases – for example when sending e-mails in which the recipients do not know each other and should not get to know each other.
Use an email program that suits you Each of us has different preferences and habits when it comes to email communication. That's why you should choose an email client that really suits you and includes the features that are important to you. Advantages of this include options to postpone incoming messages or send them later, an automatic translation of emails or a design editor to have a visually individual and attractive program.
