Managing Email Is Not Your Job

Reclaim the work day, conquer the Inbox, plus find the emails you need

Photo by Viktor Talashuk on Unsplash

Did your job description indicate “managing emails” as a daily responsibility? Would you have accepted the offer if it did?

Our employers selected us for our knowledge, experience, skills. Email is essential for business communications, however, it should not consume the majority of our daily working hours. If your inbox shows 1000+ unread emails, or you have wasted time searching for an email, then this blog is for you. My favorite organization process is to tame my inbox.

Email organization requires a simple 2-step process — for each new client, project, or department:

1) create a folder

2) create a rule that moves emails to that folder based on the sender.

That’s it. This process takes seconds to define but lasts forever.

WHY

Organization

“Strive not to get more done, but to have less to do” — Francine Jay

A hallmark of successful people is their level of organization. An organized individual will not waste time aimlessly scrolling. An organized individual will not lose an important communique. An organized person will be acutely aware of the next task to tackle.

Email is the primary mode of communication when there is a direct monetary impact. Email is also the universal standard for CYA. Organized email is a testament to an individual’s efficiency. Seamlessly accessing sought-for emails is a skill comparable to one’s typing ability.

Mindset

“Those who think they can and those who think they can’t are both usually right.” — Confucius

Individuals that believe they are disorganized will be. Disorganized people compound their self-imposed deficiencies. Seeing 1000+ unread emails is instantly debilitating. It exudes a sense of unconquerability, infecting all other thoughts. A motivated individual, eager to start the day on the right foot, will be disenchanted by this ominous sign.

It is far better to start the day with a few unread emails. They can inspire a person by offering an easily accomplished target. Likewise, a clean inbox can indicate the ability to seek new challenges or tackle lofty ideas previously brushed aside to the “one-day” list.

WHAT

Folders

Image by Author

Folders (in Outlook) or Labels (in Gmail) are a versatile organization structure that provides several benefits:

• They provide a clear delineation — a categorization. Folders can represent any type of grouping: clients, teams, projects, departments, systems, or even individuals.
• Emails housed in their respective folders are easily located without the noise of all the other emails.
• Organization by folders can provide structure to the daily schedule, allowing a person to tackle all the issues of a client or project at once. The lack of context switching can result in even greater efficiencies.
• Movement of emails to their respective folders reduces the number of emails in the Inbox.

Rules

Image by Author

Image by Author

Rules (in Outlook) or Filters (in Gmail) provide an automated mechanism that instantly partitions each email upon its arrival.

Create “Rules by Sender” in Outlook or “Filters with From” in Gmail to direct inbound emails. The sender/from designee can be associated to one or more people, a distribution list, a domain, or any combination of these options as applicable to the grouping used to create folders.

Folders provide organization but can be time-consuming without the use of Rules.

HOW

Day 1

1. On a Post-it, record the number of Unread emails in your Inbox.
2. Sort all the emails by date in descending order. Mark as Read, all emails older than the last Friday, it is unlikely these require responses.
3. Create folders and rules for all system-generated emails, for example, Daily Newsletters, GitHub notifications, or Jira /Wiki updates. In many cases, these emails can automatically be marked as Read.
4. Determine the best grouping criteria applicable. Are email senders based on clients, teams, projects, departments, etcetera?
5. Create a Folder and accompanying Rule for the most important group.

Day 2

1. On the Post-it, update the number of Unread emails. Smile as you see the decrease.
2. Create Folders and Rules for the next 5 most important groups.

Day 3

1. On the Post-it, update the number of Unread emails in your inbox. Grin as you see the smaller number.
2. Create Folders and Rules for the next 10 groups based on your criteria.
3. As needed or when time allows, within these folders, enable Conversation View, sort by Subject, read the top email in the chain, and mark the rest as read.

Day 4 & Ongoing

1. On the Post-it, update the number of Unread emails in your inbox. Bask in the glory of your progress.
2. Create new folders and rules as needed.

Answering Emails

1. Block out 2 -3 times a day for 15 minutes to tackle email. Popular email response time periods include: in the morning, before/after lunch, and the end of the day.
2. Tackle Email by asking “Do I need to reply?”:

• If the answer is no, delete the email or Mark as Read.
• If the answer is yes, ask “Can I reply now?”:
• If yes, then reply — do it NOW. Note: do NOT reply if you are angry.
• If you cannot reply, leave the email as Unread to tackle later.

3. I highly recommend utilizing Conversation View. This feature (by default On in Gmail and Off in Outlook) groups all related emails together in a chain, typically based on Subject and in descending chronological order. Reading the top (most recent) email and peruse the chain to determine the context. The remaining emails in the Conversation can be marked as read or deleted.

Email is not going away. Conquering email is easy with a simple organization process using folders and rules. A conquered inbox with a minimal number of unread emails can be motivating to tackle. Getting down to a low unread count will lavish feelings of accomplishment, as well as the envy of your peers. Organized, deliberate access to emails needed will confer a badge of capability from peers, managers, and clients. Having managed your inbox, you will have morphed into an organized individual.