The Email Experience
Learn how to reclaim your email and inbox hours with effective methods, tools, and resources.
How Many Hours are You in Your Inbox Daily?
Since the start of COVID-19, the email-open rate has increased by 12%, where the average professional was already spending 28% of their day sending and answering emails. This is excellent news for marketing firms, not so much for those looking to work more efficiently.
The average full-time employee was already spending over 2 hours per day on their email. The COVID increased due to the uptick in remote work; workers are spending over 3 hours per 8-hour workday (on average) in their inboxes sending and receiving emails. Over one-third of our workdays are dictated by email, how do we work more efficiently?
Have Designated Email Check Times
When you stop to check your email, your brain is making a move to change tasks. Changing tasks naturally slows your productivity rate and causes your focus to shift.
Depending on your role, set designated email check times throughout the day so you are not living in your inbox or checking it multiple times per hour. I find it works best with my schedule to check my email hourly then follow the email prioritization method listed below. Other roles may only require a morning, mid-day and end of day email review.
Try leveraging your time-blocking to follow your email check times. Taking a few minutes before your next meeting to pop into your email and triage it has been a great way to keep track while also not fall into the endless abyss of emailing.
Prioritize Your Responses
When responding to or handling emails, utilize the following criteria:
- Now: If you can respond to it immediately with less than a sentence, do it now.
- Later with a Label: If you don’t need to respond, categorize it and file it immediately. You can archive it (I don’t recommend this) or mark it as “read” and label it accordingly. Your labels should be specific and relate directly to the email content.
- Snooze it/Boomerang it/Task it: If you need to share a detailed response, set a boomerang for yourself, hit snooze, or add a task later when you will be able to respond with a detailed update. Ensure you are completing more than one response during your thoughtful email response period to make the most of your time.
Unsubscribe
Follow these criteria to decipher which emails you should unsubscribe from:
- Does it bring you value? This includes work or personal life.
- Do you have an immediate need for the email?
- Have you read the prior emails from this individual/company/brand?
If you answered no to one or more of the responses above, unsubscribe.
5 sentences or less
Generally speaking, useful emails can be written in five sentences or less. They are more likely to be read, retained, and acted upon when they are shorter.
How do you achieve the 5 sentences or fewer emails? Follow this structure:
Intro — Hi Mary,
Welcome line — I hope all is well in these unprecedented times.
Share your purpose in 3 sentences — I am wondering if you would like to speak with me regarding the use of Chief Executive Assistants at your company. Some things that help make Squared Away such a value is that we’re trained to be proactive, we actively find the best ways to utilize the time in your plan, and we have different options to meet the hours you need. Our plans and pricing can be viewed here.
Closing line — I am connecting you with our Director of Client Relations, Jordan, if you would like to speak with her regarding Squared Away.
Signature — Warmly, Kelsey Opel
About this method: The five-sentence or less process reduces excess information, and as a result, this method has a higher likelihood of your email, resulting in a response. Save time for both yourself and your recipient by using the 5 sentences or less method.Canned Responses
For emails that you find yourself writing and re-writing regularly, utilize canned responses. These pre-drafted emails will allow you to completely format an email with a few clicks, they can include a subject line, your content and your preferred email signature.
We use canned responses for teammate introductions (we will tweak them to fit the situation), they’re great for weekly or monthly reports, we use them to help us remember to link the correct website/form/spreadsheet/document, and they work well for the scenarios where you need to send an official email update.
When creating a canned response, follow these steps:
- Write your email without a greeting (you don’t want to save the email with a person’s name on it because you might accidentally send it to the wrong person).
- Bold and highlight any text that needs to be formatted for when the email is sent (this helps make the email fit the audience).
- Ensure you have the correct signature attached to the email (or delete your signature for the canned response, so you don’t have your signature send twice).
- Save it as a draft template with a specific title, such as “warm lead intro for Jordan.”
- Below is an example of where to find canned responses (templates) on Gmail.
Leverage Tools or an Inbox Manager
If you prefer to delegate the management of your inbox, look into these tools:
- Superhuman — A fast email experience.
- Front — Great for team collaboration in shared emails.
- Shift — Works well for organizing multiple emails and responding all on one platform.
- Sanebox — Pulls out important emails, removes distractions, and reminds you to follow up.
If you prefer to have a human manage your inbox, the Squared Away team regularly handles email triage and can work with you to mitigate stress and better organize your email inbox system.
Happy emailing!
If you’re ready to get Squared Away, visit us at GoSquaredAway.com or grab some time for a call.
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Squared Away is comprised of military spouses who are your trusted assistants. We help CEOs, VCs, executives, and startup teams get their time back. US-based. #SquaredAwayLife #ChiefExecutiveAssistant
