Help - how to manage emails

[1winterblues]

I am not very organised, and over the years I have managed to progress and now manage my team, but my emails are my biggest weakness.

I can't seem to get on top of them ever, have about 2000 unread in my inbox

Every filing system I set up goes out the window in a couple of days. I'm constantly worried I have missed something at work. I work in an email heavy culture and often get about 100 emails a day.

Please share with me your hints and tips to get an organised inbox
TIA

I'm also bad at this but what has helped is...

1. setup 'rules' and folders for certain things, i.e. notifications about holiday requests etc go into a set folder and I look at that once a week, unless something urgent comes up. My team know this so it's a good system as we all work to it. Also works well for company wide emails with info etc that you can refer back to as/when needed and they are already filed!

2. right click and flag something and put a reminder on it when something needs done, and you can then mark as done when you've done it. You can then look at your flagged list as your to do list at any point.

3. unsubscribe from any mailing lists that are unhelpful or generally no use to you. Even if it's internal ones, just politely and respectfully opt out.

4. if emails have built up, filter by email title so you can delete previous in a thread in one go and just read the most up to date.

5. use teams / SharePoint / folders etc for sharing documents you are working on together so cuts down the emails

@winter12345

Do people really delete work emails?! I keep everything 😬

Keep almost everything

If you use Outlook, I'd recommend setting up the quick steps.
So for example I have to forward an attachment to our software to work on the quick step I've set up is:

Email to: (software email address)

Then # mark as read
Then # categorise (certain category)
Then # move to archive folder
It automates the actions of 4 things with one click.

Rules are good too, I used to forward all emails with a certain word in the title or from specific people to a specific folder for me to look at at a later date. Streamlines the inbox.

Get someone to show you how to set up rules for your mailbox. Create folders that tgesef rules will automatically sort emails into.
So say for example you want to read emails sent directly to you ASAP this could be automatically sorted into an urgent folder
Emails with say for example the title potatoes would be automatically sorted into a folder you create called potatoes.
You can have as many rules as you like and you it will help you manage to prioritise your emails.
This is a godsend and will save you your sanity. As someone who get sent or copied in upwards of 500 emails a day this saves my sanity.

I really struggle with this.

There is some intriguing advice but can I ask those setting up rules to divert to folders....how to you avoid missing reading something?

Do you set aside time to read all.your folders?

My worry is I file something automatically and don't read or action it.

I just have 2 folders, inbox and “no further action”. Everything gets skim read the day it’s received, if I can obviously delete it it’s deleted straight away. If it’s information I might need/something it would be useful to keep it goes in no further action. If I actually need to do something it stays in the inbox until I’ve done it. It keeps my inbox manageable and I don’t have loads of unread emails.

I would think that 100 emails per day is pretty normal for any mid-to-senior level job so you really should be able to keep on top of them. Can you dedicate 30 minutes at the end of each day to go through your inbox - delete those that aren’t relevant plus any email threads so you just keep the most recent? Skim read the emails to look out for any actions where you are named or any HR issues that you need to deal with.

@RobinPenguins

I just have 2 folders, inbox and “no further action”. Everything gets skim read the day it’s received, if I can obviously delete it it’s deleted straight away. If it’s information I might need/something it would be useful to keep it goes in no further action. If I actually need to do something it stays in the inbox until I’ve done it. It keeps my inbox manageable and I don’t have loads of unread emails.

You have changed my life.

So simple....so addresses my paralysis over deleting and confusion as to how to file useless stuff.

Thank you!

Tell your team to stop copying you in on non urgent matters

Wow thanks everyone for the advice really helpful

@yummypumpkin I don't worry about missing stuff, because 90% of my email is duplicating other stuff anyway. In the last 12 months I think I've had to say once 'sorry that email got auto filtered, but I'll check it now' when someone queried something. And I had had another notification about that issue, it just happened that the normal notification method was not working properly that day.

The way I see it, if it's that urgent that it's life or death, I have a phone. People can call me. Tbh if its urgent I'd prefer that. And im at the stage on my career where I feel confident in saying 'this is how I work, and it works for me'. Its not the end of the world if the odd one thing a year gets missed. Better that than feeling overwhelmed by my inbox every day!

For chains the keep getting responded to
I delete the previous e-ms and only keep the most up to date. Fir reports or FYI I mark as read. For anything that be actioned I throw into a folder called ‘to be worked’ which is great after a holiday I just dip in there every afternoon and work on them for an hour or so and once worked it goes back into my inbox as read. We are often asked for information and it can be an e-mail from a few years ago we need. I only delete old chains, junk if it slips through and ‘x is leaving/getting married/having a sprog, dicking about for charity..’ I also have a folder called ‘useful stuff’ this is for links, instructions or e-nails that are really useful and I may need quickly as I can search there more quickly.

@1winterblues my top tip is to not have a complex filing system, the hours it takes to sort is not worth your life - just have 1 file for keeping stuff not in you inbox.

That way you can move it to your 1 file when you've done whatever you need with it (I've created a shortcut to do this) leaving a much smaller inbox for mental sanity

Changed my work life getting rid of the complexity. I can generally find anything I need by searching the super-file

What email software do you use at work @1winterblues?

Order the mailbox by conversation and delete all emails except the 1 latest.

If you need to take an action then keep, if not file or delete.

The ones you've kept, if you can do it same day then do it and reply if not file it and keep a note in whatever task management thing you use.

@Yummypumpkin hope it works for you! I used to have loads of different folders for different topics and types of email but it took ages and I could never find what I needed. Been doing it this way for a few years now and it works so much better.

I do 'deal/file/delete' - I have a 'pending' folder for anything I will only need to refer to temporarily so the only things in my inbox are emails I need to reply to or take some other action. When I reply to an email I file or delete both it and my reply - if filing I will file my reply and delete the original to avoid duplication.