Email sucks — this is how to deal with it
Three simple tips to master your inbox
For all the things that make 2017 amazing to live in, email still persists as a terrible artifact of the past. Ever since its rise to popularity in the 90s, we’ve never really moved on.
Even though innovations like Gmail offer a more modern layer on top of the ancient system, it’s far from perfect. Attachments are a popular way for attackers to distribute viruses, there’s more spam being sent than ever before and people still reply-all to messages that were accidentally sent to the whole office.
Unfortunately, pretty much everyone is still stuck with it, and managing the flurry of incoming messages takes up a whole lot of time every day. But even though it sucks, it’s not going anywhere — so why not embrace it? Let’s take a look at a couple of ways how you can be on top of your inbox.
Keep it very, very short
Open any email and read through it. Chances are it’s way too long — just like with calling, people feel the need to include countless formalities and fluff. Because of this, you’ll end up spending even more of your valuable time on it.
It doesn’t have to be this way. By rethinking the way you deal with email, you can make sure most of them are done before lunch. You just need to set up a personal policy: treat email like text messages.
Whenever someone sends you an email, just reply like it’s a text message — short and to the point, without unnecessary niceties. By implementing this one rule you’re doing both yourself and the recipient a favour — having to spend less time reading and replying, everyone can go on with doing actual fun stuff.
If you want to avoid coming off as insensitive and too direct, you can add a simple signature to your emails explaining why you chose to send a short reply — maybe you’ll even inspire someone else to join the movement!
To-do’s and the two-minute rule
If it takes less than 2 minutes to do it, you should do it right now.
This one sentence isn’t just one of the best tricks to beat procrastination, it also works really well for dealing with email.
When you go through your inbox at the beginning of the day, look at every new message as a to-do ready to be crossed off. Then, go straight for the ones that seem like they can be replied to in under two minutes. This way, before you know it, you’ll have dealt with most of your emails in a matter of minutes.
Only deal with email at set points during the day
This might be the hardest tip to apply, but could also be the most rewarding. One of the biggest productivity killers is checking your email at random intervals throughout the day. While going through your messages might feel productive, it actually distracts you from whatever you were trying to do in the first place.
Instead, try to focus on your messages only once or twice a day — for example, 30 minutes in the morning and 30 minutes in the afternoon. Depending on how much your job relies on email, you could even decide turn off email notifications to combat distraction.
Even though email might never truly disappear, hopefully these tips help you a bit with managing your messages. After all, as a wise woman once said:
